Can I Trust Him?

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.         Proverbs 3:5-6

Cool.  So all I have to do is trust in the Lord, and he will give me what I want.....that's what that says, right?

Um....that would be no.  But that's what we want to hear, isn't it?  Lord, here's the deal:  I'll follow your laws, I'll go to church, throw something in the offering plate, I'll follow the rules, and then - then there is the payoff.  You will shower me with blessings, blessings that I choose.  Because, after all, I deserve it.

Um.....let's look at the verses again.  "In all your ways submit to him...."  In ALL your ways.  That's with your career, with your finances, with your love life, with your friendships, with your free time and your hobbies.  With what you put in your mouth, and with what comes out of your mouth.  That's what ALL your ways is about. 

Ouch.  And then what?  What is the payoff?  "he will make your paths straight."  I like how The Message translates this:  "Listen for God's voice in everything you do everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track." 

What does it mean to 'keep on track?'  to 'make your paths straight?'  I think it means that God has a plan for us that is so much more than we can imagine on our own.  All he asks is that we trust him. 

I've always loved this poem that Christina Rossetti wrote in 1872, In the Bleak Midwinter.  It's often sung at Christmastime, and while there aren't 'frosty winds' right now in the June Ohio summer, the fourth verse sums up what kind of relationship God longs to have with us:

What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
if I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
yet what I can I give him: give my heart.

Lord, my intellect says that I want to trust you, and that only by trusting you with all my heart will I truly experience the life that is mine in Christ.  I ask for forgiveness for my need to control my life, and I pray that you will gently show me that you are trustworthy.