Trust in God(dess)
by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts
Readings
Psalm 84
How lovely is your dwelling place,
Lord Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.
Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you.
Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baka,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.
Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty;
listen to me, God of Jacob.
Look on our shield, O God;
look with favor on your anointed one.
Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose walk is blameless.
Lord Almighty,
blessed is the one who trusts in you.
Read the written message below with music videos
Trust can be a tricky thing, especially when we’re talking about trusting Divinity itself, the God known by many names. Is God real and does God care? What are you entrusting her/him with? Ultimately, trusting Divinity amounts to trusting the present moment, while letting go of anxiety and yearnings for the future or anything outside the present moment itself. It amounts to letting go of our controlling natures, our judgmentalness and tendencies to hold others and ourselves against the grindstone – especially when we think we have a good reason. Trusting God is trusting life itself, which invites us to enter the present moment with fuller awareness of our unity with everything but with less rambling thought, noting the transient and almost dream-like quality of our own perception of the world, and coming into a sense of greater peace, wholeness, and compassion.
The idea that we should trust God often falls flat to the ears, “Why,” we might ask, “with all that’s wrong with the world, why would I trust anything of the sort?” Putting explanations for the evil in this world aside (including the need for human spiritual freedom, as well as Emanuel Swedenborg’s various ideas as to how evil is ultimately used for good), I’ll note that the call to trust God is often a call to lean into a few things that we know from psychology and various spiritualities that can be very healthy for our minds and can greatly improve how we feel.
One thing that we’re called to do in trusting God is to let go of our fears of the future. I repeat this idea often (and so does scripture) but it takes practical tools and practice to truly follow the oft-given Biblical commandment of “Do not fear” and instead, trust God. Where I think we can go wrong with this idea is that we sometimes think that in order to not fear something in the future and to trust God we must believe that God will keep us from danger, pain, and death. Perhaps unfortunately, this can only be true for stretches of time, given that we all die and we all tend to carry pain that we haven’t yet accepted nor overcome. Indeed, it’s accepting what is true for us in the present moment that allows for much of our constant pain to recede, which is a scientifically validated power of mindfulness, and it is that present moment awareness that will also allow us to let go of fear of future pain, as well as limit the impact of and help us learn from any pain that comes.
Something that helps us relinquish fear of the future and come into the moment is remembering the nature of Divinity, of Jesus Christ, known by many names through many lenses. God(dess) is the root of all consciousness and the source of all gifts, eternal, and the only reality. All things in our transient universe point to God through every little detail, like a hologram or a passing, fractured reflection. We find our intrinsic closeness with this inexpressible Divinity in our very own consciousness, in our seat of awareness. To meet God, we must meet ourselves, and this most likely takes meditative practices – with an emphasis on entering the present moment, noticing the world’s passing, dreamlike quality, and reconnecting with the quiet light of the everlasting compassionate peace that is awareness itself. Remembering these truths not only helps us let go of our fear, but also should be kept in mind to help with our other practices below.
Another thing that helps us lean into trusting God and come into the moment is to let go of our ruminating about the past, our reputations, how our bodies look, and other random or society-taught conceptualizations and divisions of self. God is a living God, always merciful and always with us with deep compassionate care at the root of our very being – this makes us one in God’s reality. We too should be merciful, letting go of ruminating on our and others’ mistakes and misdeeds, while also engaging with ways to improve things actively to the extent that we can, without judgmentalness, cruelty, nor neediness, but with mercy and a rehabilitative mindset. Again, it’s important to remember that the only true reality is in Divinity, and that God is within each of our spirits as its source, this helps us to see things with an eye toward eternity and wholeness, releasing our grasping, struggling, dividing, and ruminating.
Consequently, in a way, to trust God is to trust in God’s perspective and God’s promises. Let’s ask ourselves, in what ways am I not looking at the world in the way that God must look at the world? God sees us in the fullness of our spirit, as we will become in our journeys through eternity and as we ultimately are within our intrinsic light of wisdom and love. According to the theologian Swedenborg, when God sees the whole of heaven he sees one Divine person, in the image and likeness of himself – almost as if looking in the mirror. This is part of the reason we have analogies about God as the bridegroom and heaven or the church as the bride. We too should see our intrinsic unity with God and each other, and trust in its reality.
Finally, when we think about trusting God and trusting God’s perspective, it can become all too clear that there are other things within our minds that God doesn’t feel of himself, such as judgmentalness, divisive-thinking, over-analyzation, anger, lust, and other heavy emotions. These too serve as a hindrance in our ability to trust God and characterize our feelings of isolation and separateness from God and her expressions around us. And not to beat a dead horse, but one of the most effective ways to transform these things is to accept the presence of these emotions and habits while entering the present moment. Our intrinsic light of awareness is a compassionate, healing salve, we have but to peacefully apply it to the areas of our lives we shy away from seeing or tend to fight against or run from. Instead, we’re called to hold our own mind and the issues in the world around us with compassionate care, trusting in the providence of the Lord, while leaning into a non-grasping present moment awareness. This allows for God’s will to shine through as well as natural healing and a reconnection with the wholeness at the root of our spirits.
All-in-all, the command to trust the Lord is equivalent to trusting in the present moment and entering it fully. Trusting God is putting practice where our mouth is, as it means living up to any perceived belief we have in God’s providence or even the “will of the Universe.” When our minds drift into fears about the future, concerns about our image, harsh judgments about our neighbors, and other modes of divisive, non-Godlike thinking, we undermine our trust in God and the health to be found in our intrinsic awareness and peace. Instead, trust God, trust in the process, in the long arc of karma, in the eternity of heaven, in the health of staying in the moment, and in our deep interconnectedness with everything through the never-fading foundation of present awareness.
Peace and care to you,
Cory