Trusting God

A COUPLE of days back, a friend asked me about my plans for November 2021. She was trying to work out travel plans of her own and the two were related in such a way that the one depended on the other.

I remember my reaction exactly upon reading her message; I smiled and thought: ‘I’ve no idea what I’ll be doing next week never mind next November!’

And isn’t that pretty much the way it is for all of us right now? As I write (mid-September), the newspaper lying in front of me leads with the headline: ‘Covid curbs will last for six months, No 10 warns.’

But what will these curbs amount to? Further restrictions, full-scale lockdown? What will they mean for schools, colleges and universities? What will they mean for workplaces, for the hospitality industry, for live music, sporting and arts venues? Can I plan a holiday? Can I visit elderly relatives? Social media is buzzing with all manner of speculation.

And what will it mean for the Church?

In every case we’re going to have to get better at living with uncertainty. Of course this doesn’t come naturally; we like to think that we have a degree of control over the circumstances of our lives. Uncertainty eats at such confidence. And while it’s difficult for all of us to one degree or another, imagine how much more difficult it is for those who are charged with setting plans and budgets and generating forecasts and scenarios.

I know it’s something of a cliché but perhaps we’re going to have to get much better at taking one day at a time - being more comfortable with not knowing what the future holds but content that there is an Almighty and Loving God who holds the future. Isn’t this what we mean when we speak of faith?

I’m minded to think of the Israelites as they journeyed through the desert after having left Egypt. In response to their predicament - and grumbling! - came God’s promise of morning and evening provision; manna and quail, respectively. But so too came the promise that the food would be provided daily and, therefore, that no thought was to be given to storing supplies for subsequent days. It was simply to be a case of trusting God, one day at a time.

Surely the meaning is closely linked to the petition of the Lord’s Prayer through which we are urged to ask, ‘Give us, this day, our daily bread.’

Of course there are times when planning ahead and stockpiling are exactly what’s called for! Wasn’t it Joseph’s strategic planning that saved the fledgling Israelite nation from starvation? And will we have bigger stockpiles of PPE to face up to future Covid waves? That would be no bad thing. Trusting God doesn’t equate to NOT being smart and organised!

In both cases - Joseph stock-piling grain and the Israelites only gathering enough manna for one day - the underlying quality is trusting God.

So perhaps that’s where we’re at right now. It’s not a time during which we can be certain about much but in the midst of the planning and organising that we are able to do, let’s know that God is with us today and trust that nothing is going to change that.

With strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, I’m quite content to leave next November in the hands of the one who is master over beginning and end, yesterday, today and forever.

The Rt Rev Dr Martin Fair is Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 2020/21 and is minister at Arbroath: St Andrew’s.

This article appears in the November 2020 Issue of Life and Work

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