It’s all about trust

So often we think that things happen just by chance, luck, or coincidence. You’re on a vacation visiting New York City, and you’re walking through Central Park. You come around a corner and walking toward you is someone you know from your hometown. If either of you had been a minute earlier or later, you would not have seen each other. Think of it: in that city of eight million people, neighbors from a thousand miles away in the exact same place at the exact same time. What a coincidence!

Photo Mark Schroeder wearing green vest with cross — WELS President Mark Schroeder

You decide that you need to see a doctor for a routine physical. As you undergo an exam thinking there’s nothing wrong with you, the doctor discovers a lump in your neck that turns out to be malignant. The doctor says it was caught just in time. If you hadn’t made that appointment, things could have turned out much worse. Was it just by chance that you scheduled that appointment?

Driving home from work recently, I was following a pickup truck. Suddenly a huge tom turkey flew in front of the pickup. The bird bounced straight up and came down right on my windshield, breaking my window and leaving two drumstick-shaped dents on the roof of my car. I couldn’t help but think, If only I hadn’t stopped for gas, I would not have been in that place at that very second. How unlucky was that?

No matter how much we think of things happening by chance, luck, or mere coincidence, we know that this is just not the case. David summarized an amazing truth so well when he said, “My times are in your hands” (Psalm 31:15). David recognized that everything that happened in his life was not the result of mere chance, luck, or coincidence. Everything—and that means everything—that happens in our lives takes place with God’s gracious hands guiding all things and caring for us in keeping with his saving will. Paul’s words to the Romans expressed the same truth: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

There are times in our lives when God’s purpose is clear in his intent to bless and prosper us. When things go well, when plans succeed, when relationships bloom, we can easily recognize those moments as blessings from a gracious God. But when things don’t go well, when plans fail, when trouble and hardship crash into our lives, then it is not so easy to acknowledge that in all things—all things—God is graciously working for our eternal good.

It’s in times like these that the words of David should become our words: “I trust in you, LORD; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hands” (Psalm 31:14,15). We don’t blame fate. We don’t chalk it up to chance, bad luck, or mere coincidence. Instead, we trust. We remember God’s promises. And we thank God for his blessings, regardless of how they come to us.

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