Trusting God When You Don’t Know How to Fix It

Christmas is my favourite time of the year. I secretly count down to the first of December. So, an explosion of light and love can take over every day.

One unsuspecting Wednesday in mid-December, my husband arrived home early from work. I stood on the porch and watched him walk heavily in his step. I asked, “why are you home?”

The tumbling of words from his mouth created a whirlwind of emotion. (I still find that moment overwhelming nine months post.) His father, our beloved Dolf had passed away suddenly overseas and mid-pandemic. We hadn’t been able to visit our family overseas for over two years.

The days leading up to the funeral were heartbreaking, and we knew that my husband needed to leave the country to attend to his family in their moment of devastation. But the borders were firmly shut, and he needed a miracle even to get a visa, flight and quarantined accommodation.

When we face impossible moments, it’s hard to trust the provision of a make-possible Father God. How’s your last few years been?
Are you burdened by the heavy days?

It’s not your job to shoulder all that weight.

Trust is knowing who holds the answer, even if all the puzzle pieces seem so discarded and lost.

Matthew 11:29-30 says.

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:29-30

The good news is that Jesus promises to all that he will give them rest when they come to him.

Lessons I’ve learned from this scripture over the last year.

1) A yoke is a farming tool designed to distribute the weight evenly across two oxen.

When we trust God, we enable the weight to be carried and shared. Learning this principle is the best posture that precedes trusting when we allow ourselves to explore. A place of grace to learn rather than the rigidity of thinking we can’t grow anymore.

Can you share the weight today?

2) We allow ourselves to discover the beauty of the unknown.

As we surrender to the unknown, we worry that the result will be difficult. What if the result is brilliant? Rather than believing the worst, can we believe the best?

3) Jesus is gentle and humble of heart.

Be gentle with a humble spirit. Jesus always leans towards the service of another. We struggle to trust Him because we so desperately think that we will be in trouble, that he will tell us off if we fail. And also, sometimes, we’re unsure about the pain that requires our agile capacity to change.

Is it time to trust Him?

4) Rest comes when we ask for help comes from another.

A shared struggle brings with it rest. We need each other. Trust asks that we build community, and relationships show that we don’t need to carry it alone. Without our striving and seeking to have all the answers. Ask for help; it helps us trust even when we don’t have the answers or know how to fix it.

My husband, with only moments, to spare after begging the government of New Zealand, got a visa, an air ticket and quarantine hotel allocation. But he wasn’t able to attend his own father’s funeral. And we zoomed to the funeral together. We were so grateful for technology but so profoundly grieved not to be together for this moment. He was in the country but was in hotel quarantine.

Christmas apart from each other was harrowing. But even more challenging is the knowledge that until our borders reopened, he wouldn’t be able to return home.

Four weeks later.

Six weeks later,

Seven weeks later.

Eight weeks later.

Nine weeks later.

I sat at the beach with my children as the New Year rang through to a new season. What would the year hold? I wondered how to trust when I couldn’t fix the problems, the borders; it was too much to face alone. We waited, FaceTimed and prayed that a moment of vindication would change the tide of our story.

I asked God for a word for the year 2022 to help me find hope in a hopeless situation.

The next day I walked the beach again and heard a whispered word, “embolden.”

And immediately, I thought, did I make up a word?

Then I googled the definition of this word embolden.

“To give (someone) the courage or confidence to do something.”

So, where do you need courage today in an impossible situation? To have courage, we must know what it means to trust God when we don’t know how to fix it. He brings the answers. He helps us with uncommon boldness in uncommon seasons.

So, where do you find your boldness?

I pray that you would first surrender to the grace and peace of allowing his yoke to come close to spreading the weight of the situation. But also, you would trust His provision in the impossibility of a life that continues to change despite us.

May the peace of Christ dwell abundantly and bring peace that surpasses understanding.

You got this.

And even when we don’t, He certainly does.