One Year Ago Today: If He Is God...

Jeremiah 29:11
¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

As my husband and I were getting ready to go to bed last night, we realized the significance of the date: 1/13/11.  It's amazing how much can happen in one year.  One year ago, we would have never imagined where we would be today.

It was the night of January 13th, the night before "Match Day"- the day my husband would be placed in residency somewhere across the country. We had no idea where we would end up the following year....anywhere from North Carolina to Boston to Chicago. 

We decided to take a look back at my journal entry that night.  The anticipation was high as we awaited the unfolding of our future.  The call we were to receive the following morning was something we had been praying about for years.  Where would we end up, and what would our lives be like?  Where would God decide to take us, and would we be happy? 

The truth of the matter is, that night was really a stretching of our faith, learning to trust God in the future we could not see.  As Elisabeth Elliot so transparently said in one of her books: If He was God, He could be trusted.  

I was reading recently about the story of Joshua as he was transporting the ark of the covenant.   They reached what seemed like a dead end on their journey as they faced the Jordon river.  I love the instructions that God gives them next: "Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river."

The journey of faith required them to act.  God could have just proved himself to them by parting the waters right before their eyes.  He could have, but he didn't.  Relationships require a certain level of genuine trust...trust in the unseen.

But the moment they trusted...God met them there:

¹⁵ Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, ¹⁶ the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
Sometimes we have to get our feet wet and learn that true faith requires us to step out and believe.  

This story is so significant to me at this stage in my life, one year later, looking back at all that God has done.  He asked us to trust Him, to get our feet wet in this journey of life, and to believe that he would truly come through for us.  To believe that He is good.  To believe that He is God, and that He can be trusted. 

One year later we are settled into a new city, developing an incredible community of friends, surrounded by loving family, and enjoying our beautiful baby girl.  God has once again proven that He is faithful and that He is God.

Maybe you too, are waiting on God.  Maybe you have found yourself at what seems to be a dead end road, looking at the unlit path that lies ahead with anticipation and anxiety.  It's hard to trust in moments like this.  It's hard to trust when the future seems completely out of your control.  But on the other hand, it's moments like this where God allows us the opportunity to trust- because, frankly, it's the only thing we CAN do.  

Trust him with your future.  Trust that He cares.  Trust that if He truly is God....He can be trusted.  Take a step of faith, and then sit back and watch Him prove Himself to you.