Trust Falls

My feed on Instagram is mainly about three things: Posts about family, posts about baking, and posts of Bible verses. I love a good verse to smack me in the face in the morning with some motivational truth, how about you? I’ve come to realize something though. Sometimes those verses mean a lot more than a two-second Facebook story can really convey. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” Trust in the Lord. Seems pretty basic, right?  But when we say, “I trust you God, what do we mean?” What does it mean to trust? 

Years ago I was a counselor at Christian Camp and we did trust falls with the youth. We stood one person up on a high ledge and a group of us below had to catch them as they fell backwards into our arms. When it was my turn, the trouble came in looking at all the skinny pre-teen arms waiting below and trusting that they would catch me when I fell backwards into them. Eventually, I got my nerve and I am here today as a witness that it worked. They caught me. Overcoming what I saw- a big drop and twig arms- and stepping out, or in this case, falling back into those waiting arms, was difficult. But was that trust? It’s not a real stretch to think that those people would catch me. I could see them there below. They were there, waiting and ready. Making it into their arms wasn’t out of the realm of possibility at all.

Let's think about a trust fall “God-style.” This time, no one is behind you. Jesus is standing in front of you. Jesus says, “Do you trust me?” You say “Yes Jesus, I trust you.” Then Jesus says, “Okay good. Now fall back.” Wait... what? Fall BACK? You don’t understand that directive. No one is  waiting there behind you to catch you. How could this possibly work? THIS, my friends, is the moment of trust. Trusting God means not having to have something possible to believe but to obey God at His word. We know that falling back like that, under normal circumstances, is crazy. You are sure to crack your melon and spill your seeds out all over the floor. But trusting God is different. God is unsearchable in His greatness and understanding. With God nothing is impossible. And, God is good. Because He is good, He wants you to know Him. The more you know Him the more you can trust Him and the more you trust Him, the more you will know Him. Trust is having such faith in the goodness of God, that you fully rely on Him to come through, no matter what you see. No matter what you understand. 

A favorite story of mine is in John 11. Jesus is hanging out near the Jordan river when He gets word from his friends, Mary and Martha that their brother Lazarus is sick. We know that Jesus knew a lot of people. Multitudes followed him around to catch a free meal or get healed. Somewhere along the way He met Mary and Martha and Lazarus who lived in Bethany. He became pretty good friends with them, even staying at their house sometimes. And there are a couple verses as this story begins in John 11 that tell us something too. 

“Now Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.” (vs 5-6).

Hmmm. That’s a funny couple of sentences, isn’t it? Lazarus is sick. Jesus heals people when they are sick. Jesus loves Lazarus. Jesus stays two more days where He is. Very interesting. Mary and Martha sent this word to Jesus because Jesus was their friend and they trusted that Jesus would heal Lazarus. They could definitely trust in that because they had seen him do it plenty of times for people. Most of the time the people getting healed were strangers to Jesus. He would see them, heal them, and never see them again. But Lazarus and his sisters were close friends with Jesus. They had even invited Him to their home. I’m sure they thought that when they asked, He would come right away. I mean, they were special to Him. He loved them, right? 

Here’s the thing: They were special. He did love them. And He wasn’t coming...yet.

Jesus had no intention of healing Lazarus.  He had more for them than a healing. He loved them so much that He trusted them with something bigger. Jesus had been talking a lot about who He was. He said He was the Way, the Truth, and The Life. He said He was the Bread of Life. He said He was the Resurrection and the Life. Jesus literally had the power to bring dead people back to life. And, because they were close to Him, because He loved them especially, that was His plan for Lazarus. We can see from the story that they missed the message. When Jesus finally arrived in Bethany four days later, He was greeted with a whole town in full-on grieving mode. Because healing was no longer a possible outcome, Mary and Martha weren’t even looking for Jesus to come anymore. And  Lazarus was already wrapped up tight in the grave. 

What were Mary and Martha really trusting in? They were trusting in healing. And Lazarus was dead. They thought they were trusting in their relationship with Jesus yet from their perspective, He wasn’t waiting there behind them to catch them this time. I bet they felt abandoned and alone, questioning if Jesus was who He said He was. Have you ever felt that way before? Have you ever believed God for something with what seemed like unwavering faith, only to hear crickets and see something die in front of your eyes? 

It was indeed their relationship with Him that set Mary, Martha, and Lazarus up for this miracle. Obviously, you can’t raise someone from the dead if they are just sick. A person has to be dead to come back to life again. But death isn’t what they were expecting, and they were disappointed. They didn’t even look for resurrection because- here’s the deal- they really weren’t trusting in Jesus. They were trusting in an outcome. Specifically, their trust was in the outcome that they understood, healing. They had seen and heard a lot of things from Jesus and had opened up their home to Him. In turn, because He loved them, He had picked them for something very special. He was trusting them with something big. Resurrection. But because their trust was misplaced, they stopped hoping and trusting. They just buried Lazarus and grieved.

Can you relate to their situation? How would you respond? Can you fall backwards into the waiting arms of Jesus? Great! Now, can you fall backwards when He is standing in front of you and it doesn’t make sense?  It looks like it’s impossible to be caught that way. right? Well, when we are only looking at what is possible we, by default, decide what isn’t possible. Looking for the possible distracts from the impossible! We have to change how we trust by how we see! 

Real trust is seeing the impossible as possible.

Who knows what God could do if we did His trust fall? At first thought, maybe Jesus could just quickly appear behind and catch us. Okay, but let’s get out of the box a little. Maybe we will lean back and one hundred down pillows will suddenly appear and envelope us as we land. Maybe instead of falling we will just start to float in the air. Maybe wings will appear on our back and we will fly! The Bible says, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Cor 2:9 ESV). What if we believed this verse and trusted God for the prepared, unseen imaginations of His heart to manifest here for us? Something that has never happened before could happen. How will we know unless we trust God to find out?

What happened with Mary and Martha and Lazarus? Jesus is undeterred by the lack of faith, determined to show Himself faithful to His friends and to give them the unimagined gift of a resurrection miracle. He approaches the tomb and tells Lazarus to come out. It’s a good thing He just said “Lazarus” or the whole lot of dead bodies could have hopped out, still wrapped in their graveclothes! Instead, Lazarus comes forth and is untied, alive! All the people who had come for mourning were now witnesses to the power of Jesus Christ. And Mary and Martha had their brother back, safe and sound. 

Later we see a scene where Jesus is at their home having dinner. Martha is serving and Lazarus is sitting at the table, telling stories of Heaven I imagine! And Mary is doing something unimaginable. She has taken her most expensive oils, a year’s wages or more in price, and poured them all over Jesus from head to toe. These oils were exclusively to be used to anoint a body in burial. They were never used on someone who is alive. Jesus, who so beautifully trusted Mary with something costly and kind of crazy, death and resurrection, is now receiving something costly and crazy in return. Mary has wasted a year's worth of burial ointment on Jesus, who is alive! No one knew that in a few more days, Jesus would be condemned to death on a cross, this fragrant oil on His body to be mixed with His blood spilled for the sins of us all. 

On account of the miracle of Lazarus, many Jews went away believing in Jesus. And Jesus was anointed for a burial that no one knew would come. And Mary had a heart of extravagant worship that she never would have had otherwise. Can I challenge you today? Become someone who believes in impossible things. Set your heart that with God, all things are possible. Trust in God, not in outcomes. Lean not on your own understanding and discover the unimagined wonders He has waiting for you! If you do, who will go away from your story believing in Jesus? And what costly and aromatic worship will you pour out on Him from your life?