NB: This isn’t my usual type of post, it’s just me trying to make sense of some thoughts. It’s a product of reflecting on the first few months of this year, being up at 2 a.m. with nothing better to do and needing to put out a reminder to my future self. I guess one could say this is sort of a prose/poem….

Trust and Obey…
Two simple instructions,
yet so often I opt for the road leading to self-destruction.
Why?

Why do I fight against my inner conviction,
falling back into behavioural systems that I know will always fail me?
Did I not learn from the last disappointment?
The shame I felt run over me like a waterfall, eroding away my hope?
Curled up in a ball, my duvet turned into a fig leaf,
a feeble attempt to hide my failings from the Father.
Lost and afraid,
because I chose to neglect his instructions, to trust and obey…

To trust is to put your faith in something greater,
confident that something major is at work, even when the evidence is yet to be seen.
It’s to know that the one who is has got you back and his unchanging love will never fail you.
A love so unfathomable and great, yet is so easy to forsake
for fleeting comforts.

Obedience is the other key ingredient,
It requires you to give up your control to somebody who’s in the know.
To follow what is right and true,
for he who is instructing was constructing a master plan for your life.
Long before your conception he had set a direction,
a trajectory for your story that would lead you to his glory.
Yet out of his love liberated us with free will,
in hopes that we would be still, and listen to his advice,
to trust and obey.

To trust and obey is the only way to enter into his purpose for our lives.
Only under these instructions do we find freedom,
the freedom that the cross brings to fulfil our potential.
To walk in his path, protected by his love as his hand leads us to greater things.

Too easily do I shy away from this and turn towards sin.
Too quickly do I seek satisfaction in that which dissatisfies him.
Too often do I fall short of his glory,
yet in his great mercy he forgives.

He welcomes me back with open arms and overwhelming jubilation,
he loves me so much for I am his special creation.
Engulfed in his arms he holds me tight and whispers in my ear,
“My dear, I love you and will be by your side always,
you are valued, cherished and chosen.
It’s because of how deeply I care for you that I repeatedly say,
you should listen to my voice and learn to trust and obey.”

– IY