It was a Monday morning, I was too tired from the previous night to wake up early. Considering the expected traffic on the road to work, I decided to opt for a bike instead.
The journey was going on smoothly until we got to the Third Mainland Bridge, I started peeping through the side from left to right just to see the road ahead and have the confidence that all is well.
Unknown to me, my action was really distracting the bike man and when he could not take it anymore, he stopped. He then asked me “Sir, why are you moving right and left” and in response, I told him “I’m trying to see the front. With a soft gentleman smile, he looked at me and said “I understand sir, but it’s distracting me, it can cause an accident sir” Out of curiosity I asked him “So, how am I supposed to see the front?” His response was both shocking, scary, and instructive at the same; he said to me “Sir, you’re not supposed to be looking, you just have to trust me”.
In that instant, the statement hit me so hard that I meditated on it all day at the office. It was no longer an okada man speaking but God saying to me “You’ve got to trust me”
Thinking about it again now, our everyday reactions to God is in most ways similar to my interaction with the bike man. While God is leading us daily and expecting us to trust him, we are constantly going from right to left attempting to peep into the future.
We trust God but we also want to control the narrative to avoid stories that touch. We trust God but we’ve been told that he only helps those who help themselves. We trust God but we want to have a say in how he is turning the steering of our life and if his destination is not exactly aligning with what we have in mind we want to be able to remedy it before it’s too late. The plan B, C, D and Es are not just because we’re detailed, they’re sometimes symbolic of our fear that his plan might not work. We are constantly peeping into the future, just in case.
How about our seed of prayers, some of us are praying so hard about the future not because we’re committing it into his hand but because we fear things might not go as planned. How about the 5-year plans and the ‘where I want to be in 10 years’ models that are constantly putting us under pressure? Are they God-induced or fear inflicted? When others who are not as brilliant and qualified as you are getting good jobs, settling down and having kids, would you still trust that he knows what he is doing with your life?
It doesn’t matter whether things are going as planned or not, we’ve got to trust the Lord all the way believing that his plans for us may conflict with our interest but he always considers our best interest.
May God open our eyes to this reality in Jesus’ name.
