DEVOTION FOR SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 2020
Too eager I must not be to understand.
How should the work the Master goes about
Fit the vague sketch my compasses have planned?
I am his house–for him to go in and out.
He builds me now-and if I cannot see
At any time what he is doing with me,
‘Tis that he makes the house for me too grand.
–from Diary of an Old Soul by George McDonald
We Trust Him by Alvin Rogness
Need we understand how the universe came into being? Or why human beings were created? Need we understand why a young woman dies of leukemia or why her grandfather, knowing no one, languishes in a nursing home?
Out from the mystery of existence it is as if God says, “Trust me.” The mystery will remain, however much we try to penetrate it. Is it not presumptuous for any of us to become God’s attorney for the defense and attempt to justify him? Our only options are to trust him or to let him go.
To trust him may not be easy. With so many things going wrong in the world and in our own lives, is it possible not to call him to account? Could he not prevent the disasters that plague us? Should we not demand that he ask our forgiveness for having made us as we are and for putting us in a world so full of trouble?
Any option other than to trust him will not satisfy. There is no joy in believing that there is no God and that the universe is a cold, impersonal machine; or in believing that he has forgotten all about us; or in fearing that he is a harsh judge always giving us what we deserve.
To trust him is after all the only option that gives peace. We start with a God who created us in love and who redeemed us in love. Life takes on meaning when we trust him to use every circumstance in life, pleasant or unpleasant, to give us courage and hope. Life opens up with new joys as we trust his way, the way of the servant.
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” (Ps. 23:1).
Alvin Rogness (1906-1992) was president of Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN, from 1955-1974.