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I have been so richly encouraged listening to Darin Hufford from the Into the Wild pod casts, one in particular I just started listening to was entitled “Free Falling” you can listen to it here.
I am finding I can far better relate to this brother than I can to another couple I have listened to for several years now Wayne and Brad from the God Journey. Darin is speaking my language as he is trying to hammer out what it means to live in the wild, or as I like to put it, living in the new world.
Having our mind (soul) catch up to the reality of whose we are reminds me of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. Nick was only at that point able to relate to a New World reality with an Old World mind set. Can you relate to that?
The following quote is from Brennan Manning from his book Ruthless Trust; “Our story is perhaps a paradigm for every trusting disciple. The way of trust is a movement into obscurity, into the undefined, into ambiguity, not into some predetermined clearly delineated plan for the future. The next step discloses itself only out of a discernment of God acting in the desert of the present moment. The reality of naked trust is the life of a pilgrim who leaves what is nailed down, obvious, and secure, and walks into the unknown without and rational explanation to justify the decision or guarantee the future. Why? Because God has signaled the movement and offered it as his presence and his promise.”
I have shared at different times on my blogs how much interest there is in the results of faith, but venturing into the way of faith/trust, well, that’s another issue. What Brennan has said here is what I see being the life of trust, and the very nature of trust is that it must continually be tried. So much faith/trust is in my opinion simply faith or trust in our faith or trust! Better known as a form of godliness but lacking any real power!!
As he continues to bring an unshakable certainty into my life it operates within the context of vast uncertainties, ergo the strain, the pain, the struggle of His life becoming FULLY formed in me as me.
Another quote from Manning; “The basic premise of biblical trust is the conviction that God wants us to grow, to unfold, and to experience fullness of life. However, this kind of trust is acquired only gradually and most often through series of crises and trials. Through the indescribable anguish on Mount Moriah with his son Isaac, Abraham learned that the God who had called him to hope against hope was eminently reliable and that the only thing expected of him was unconditional trust. That great old man models the essence of trust in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures: to be convinced of the reliability of God.The story of salvation-history indicates that without exception trust must be purified in the crucible of trial.”
Rich
I am finding I can far better relate to this brother than I can to another couple I have listened to for several years now Wayne and Brad from the God Journey. Darin is speaking my language as he is trying to hammer out what it means to live in the wild, or as I like to put it, living in the new world.
Having our mind (soul) catch up to the reality of whose we are reminds me of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. Nick was only at that point able to relate to a New World reality with an Old World mind set. Can you relate to that?
The following quote is from Brennan Manning from his book Ruthless Trust; “Our story is perhaps a paradigm for every trusting disciple. The way of trust is a movement into obscurity, into the undefined, into ambiguity, not into some predetermined clearly delineated plan for the future. The next step discloses itself only out of a discernment of God acting in the desert of the present moment. The reality of naked trust is the life of a pilgrim who leaves what is nailed down, obvious, and secure, and walks into the unknown without and rational explanation to justify the decision or guarantee the future. Why? Because God has signaled the movement and offered it as his presence and his promise.”
I have shared at different times on my blogs how much interest there is in the results of faith, but venturing into the way of faith/trust, well, that’s another issue. What Brennan has said here is what I see being the life of trust, and the very nature of trust is that it must continually be tried. So much faith/trust is in my opinion simply faith or trust in our faith or trust! Better known as a form of godliness but lacking any real power!!
As he continues to bring an unshakable certainty into my life it operates within the context of vast uncertainties, ergo the strain, the pain, the struggle of His life becoming FULLY formed in me as me.
Another quote from Manning; “The basic premise of biblical trust is the conviction that God wants us to grow, to unfold, and to experience fullness of life. However, this kind of trust is acquired only gradually and most often through series of crises and trials. Through the indescribable anguish on Mount Moriah with his son Isaac, Abraham learned that the God who had called him to hope against hope was eminently reliable and that the only thing expected of him was unconditional trust. That great old man models the essence of trust in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures: to be convinced of the reliability of God.The story of salvation-history indicates that without exception trust must be purified in the crucible of trial.”
Rich
6 comments:
"So much faith/trust is in my opinion simply faith or trust in our faith or trust!"
Well said and very true.
"As he continues to bring an unshakable certainty into my life it operates within the context of vast uncertainties, ergo the strain, the pain, the struggle of His life becoming FULLY formed in me as me."
I like that. The certainty of Him, period — in the midst of the uncertainties of how He will accomplish His work in and around us.
Thanks Dave, if our security isn't in Him, then its just a shell game we're playing!
Discovering the sufficiency of His grace in the trenches of real living is mind boggling, bends the imagination and beggars speech.
Rich, I think sometimes I struggle, not with whether He is trustworthy, but with whether I can mess it up. Coming to terms with this idea that it's not up to me is an interesting journey. Am I suffering because I have missed something or because he is pulling me through a refining fire? And then the answer seems simple, to trust that if He had something to say, He would say it to an open heart.
J.
Interesting you should mention the Ragamuffin book. I just started reading it -- only got through a couple of pages before the dam broke this week and the whole river of whatever-can-go-wrong-will-go-wrong came flooding over us, so I have not had a chance to read any more, but now I will.
I don't know much about faith, but I know about trust. I tend to be like a little kid, running to God like a parent, screaming "Help!" and just assuming that everything will be all better. Of course, I get reinforced in that because God does make everything all better, often in very unique and unpredictable ways.
Janna,
I have no idea if this even remotely relates to what you’ve shared here Janna, but here goes.
I do see you struggling with the trustworthiness of our Father, as we all do. If our trust is in our doing the right stuff then it’s but a matter of gravity, time before we learn experientially that it is a trust in His perfect love for us not based upon what we do or don’t do.
Everything other than our God and Father BEING total unconditional LOVE is being addressed/undressed in our lives, the clear cut lines of what we grew up knowing within the religious world are becoming more and more blurred, and ergo our equilibrium is greatly askew.
Janna,
I like to look at prior to the fall in the Garden, their nakedness wasn’t mixed with any shame whatsoever, afterward, they had to put on a new set of clothes, custom designed sweat-pants, everything they did was going to be based on what they did instead of trusting in His trustworthiness.
Elizabeth,
I find what you shared here most interesting, “only got through a couple of pages before the dam broke this week and the whole river of whatever-can-go-wrong-will-go-wrong came flooding over us.”
It is not for not that I have named this blog, And Then Life Happened! It is out of and in these unexpected and unplanned events, crises, that we have set before us an open door.
As we are set/made free from within, we have the opportunity to discover that we are able to trust in One who has the ability to bring the very best out of what we see as being the very worst.
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