I actually grew up a 90's Disney baby. I love the classic disney princess movies. The Little Mermaid, Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Toy Story, Hercules, The Lion King and the list goes on. One of my brothers and I will often randomly quote lines to each other in casual conversations from our favorite movies. Sometimes it's in context, but just as often it could be a random pop quiz of our memories of the films.
In my top five of disney films, Aladdin certainly makes the cut. The scene where Aladdin tricks the genie into getting them out of the cave without using a wish, is one I can quote almost verbatim. As I was preparing this week's blog, I thought of the first time Aladdin asks Jasmine, "Do you trust me?"
At this point in the movie Jasmine had only known Aladdin for a few hours at most before trusting that he wouldn't get them both killed while jumping off a roof. She is hesitant, but based off the short time they spent together she literally puts her life in his hands as they try to escape the guards. This scene very well could have been my first cognizant introduction to blind trust.
Watching Princess Jasmine willingly bet her life on the knowledge of a man she just met, may have planted the seed in me to trust those things I may be unsure of... or I could just be projecting my adult perceptions onto my childhood memories.
In either case, the uncertainty and hesitancy that Jasmine likely felt is a sentiment I share. Except in my case I've had more than a few short hours to get to know the One who is asking for my trust.
I definitely grew up in church. In addition to being taught the Bible for as long as I have been able to understand, I've also been witness to - and even sometimes apart of - miraculous moves of God. I've seen and experienced firsthand deliverance. I've watched God answer prayers time and time again.
And yet, when the next test proves to be difficult in ways I don't understand, I forget to trust God.
It's so interesting to me because the title of today's blog was almost "Blind Trust", but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it isn't really blind. I've often heard the analogy made about our faith in inanimate objects. When you are ready to sit down you find a chair to sit in. When you go to sit, you don't ever really think about whether or not the chair will hold you up, because history and experience has taught you that chairs are for sitting. We are actually more surprised when/if it does actually collapse underneath us.
Unfortunately, more often than I care to admit, I experience some sort of amnesia when it comes to my history and experience with God. Hard times come and I panic. I scramble for short term solutions or I look for the quickest way out. It's not until I'm knee deep in chaos that I remember, "Wait a second, God's got me." It's like being 5 feet and tripping into 2 feet of water, you think you're going to drown until you stand up.
So far in my walk, God hasn't called me to do anything particularly outside of the norm. To date, the riskiest thing I feel He's asked me to do was in fact to start this blog turned business. The majority of my walk has been a call to be set apart.
John 17: 14 says, "I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." and Romans 12:2 says, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
God has asked that I look like Him, that I be evidence of who He is. Galatians 5:22-23 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." So though history and experience has taught me to be patient , my initial reaction to some of my problems is to move quickly. Though God has called me to peace, my knee jerk response is to war. Though God has asked me to be set apart, sometimes I want to do what every one else is doing. And loathe as I am to admit it, it's because I've actually in these instances placed my trust in myself at a higher priority than my trust in the knowledge of God's Word.
I teach in Sunday School that your obedience to God is a reflection of your trust in Him. When God says in John 14:15, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." He isn't being manipulative or exercising transactional love. When you love someone you trust that they have your best interest at heart. When you trust someone, and they give you instruction, you obey because you understand that the knowledge they have given you is for your good.
Sometimes our tribulations are large, scary and life defining, but more often than not it's the little battles that shape how we win our wars. If we can practice trusting God with our character, in our day to day lives, in our walk and talk with Him, we are less likely to forget Him when the big tests come.
So, God is asking you today:
"Do you trust me?"
