It seems so simple those words, ‘TRUST IN THE LORD’, and yet there are very chaotic times in our lives that we have trouble digesting even the thought of Trust.  When I look back over the 65 years of my life, I remember those difficult, chaotic, and ‘at the end of my rope’, trying times.  TRUST IN THE LORD became a steppingstone in each season.

 

The original LORD SHEPHERD AND HIS SHEEP SHED was produced as a cassette tape.  This was in 1984 prior to CDs.  So in and around 2012, I decided to put it into CD form.  A local church wanted to perform the children’s musical and my background reel to reel was outdated as well.  I went back to Tad Suckling, the Producer. He went through my tapes and reels creating a better product for CD production.  While cleaning up the process, he found a glitch that he could not explain.  It happened right before the reprise song of Sheep Shed.  He played it over and over and realized that is was saying “TRUST”.  I was amazed.  The very ‘word’ the Lord spoke to me in all my difficult seasons.  I listened and yes I still have the original cassette and can still hear it.  “TRUST”, the Word that calmed my fears and anxiety.  One of the first songs I wrote as a teen included the very verse that spoke to me:

Proverbs 3:5 & 6

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make direct your paths.”

In the past two weeks I’ve seen my children and grandchildren go through difficult situations.  As a parent you want to go in and rescue them.  After all they are my treasures that I’m laying up in heaven, I’m responsible to do my part…Right?????  Here’s the steppingstone. The Lord told me, ‘I’ve got your bundle of blessings and I’m going to bring beauty out of their brokenness, just like I did for you, but you need to TRUST me with your Bundle of Blessings”. 

        “Okay”, I said, “that sounds like a great trade off.  I’m in”.  Hard to do at times, but I’m in. Deep down in my soul I so want to protect them from hardships and for them to KNOW what I’ve learned and take ownership of ‘what I’ve learned’.  But He says to “Trust Him”.  He wants to do the supernatural, Spirit thing He did in my heart and personally speak his unique word into their hearts.  He is the only one who can do it.

So that is why I’m writing today.  I’m remembering and hearing new things, the old and new steppingstones, and memorializing His work in my heart.

This week I was reading the verse in Hebrews 11:6.

“For without Faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” While meditating on this verse, I started thinking about the story of Peter, when Jesus wanted to wash his feet.

John 13:5-9

“Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.  He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,

“Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”  Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him,  “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me”.  Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 

As a child I was taught and instructed with Biblical and musical training and held jobs at a very young age.  It builds confidence in a child to have those skills.  But in that confidence, that our parents instilled in us while providing a safe haven, we sometimes think that we need to handle everything ourselves as we go into adulthood.  That is good, healthy, and awesome, ohhhhhhh, but not the ultimate.  There are still those chaotic seasons of testing, where there is no more relying on our own ability. 

I think this is what Jesus was teaching Peter.  All the self- confidence in the world can cause us to miss out on the steppingstone of Faith, Trust and ultimately, ohhhh, The Relationship.  When we fail or are not able to exceed or handle what is put in our path, where do we go and what do we do? Can we see beyond ourselves?

Jesus was showing Peter through a simple process, that his feet needed to be washed. A custom in the country was to wash a guest’s feet. Dusty roads and sandals make for messy feet.  In Peter’s messiness, Jesus offered a relationship and Peter, at first, chose his pride, his self-confidence, his talent, his loftiness, his ‘I can do this’ over the humility of receiving a relationship that he could trust in.  But Peter quickly changed when Jesus spoke His Word and woke him up, out of the self- driven fogginess of loftiness.

Peter chose Jesus to wash his feet.  Can we choose Jesus instead of our pride?  That is where the steppingstone of Trust in the Lord is.

John 16:33

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”      JESUS

.                          Isaiah 55:8 &9

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

He is more than enough and totally worthy of our Trust.

     “Loving kindness surrounds me when I put my trust in Him.”

Katrina Miller   October 26, 2020

Photos of Stepping Stones are:
Picture of 1984 Cassette cover
Picture of 2012 CD Cover
Animated Picture 2019 of my grandkids with Lord Shepherd by the illustrator of the future You Tube project and the next Steppingstone.