So God asks, "Do you trust me?"

When we hear that God is good all of the time, we may think that our lives should be good all of the time.

Good people are generous and kind. Scripture says that we are built in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), so God should be good and kind.

As a good and kind God, we should experience God’s goodness and kindness. No speedbumps. No hurdles. No hurts.

But even the Christian experiences speedbumps, hurdles and hurts. And far worse.

So, if God is good, why aren’t are lives always good?

I believe and have experienced firsthand that the goodness of God is a trust issue. This trust issue isn’t God with us. God is good with us (and that’s an understatement!)

The issue is our trust with God.

Before you say “Yes,” ask honestly, do you really trust God?

I invite a pause here, a deep and honest reflection. Here comes the question a second time. Do you trust God?

Remember when you were a kid and a parent or another adult who was parentlike to you asked, “Well, if (insert your friend’s name here) jumped off a bridge, would you do it, too?”

That’s what I am asking here. Are you going to jump off the bridge (metaphorically)? Can you trust so completely, even when logic, common sense, and the whole world screams differently?

I am not quite sure who is reading this, but don’t literally jump off a bridge.

Why?

It’s late September! The water is cold!

But do think about trust.

We may think it’s a give and take relationship. We will give “a little” to God and see what He does. If it works, okay. We may leave it at this for a while. If we don’t really need God in the moment, we can wait for the moment when we do. Then we can give a little more. Maybe.

This goes back to the good God notion. If God is good, then God is understanding. As an understanding God, the Most High will understand my trepidation, my anxiety, and my fear of stepping where I have never stepped, of walking where I have never walked.

You noticed I stopped the bridge jumping imagery. Why? Some are thinking that the water isn’t THAT cold.

Do you trust God?

There is that pesky again. Do you trust God?

This doesn’t have to be so big, so either/or.

Trust God. Go gently. Take one step. Take another. And then another.

Talk to God. A little here. More there. Pause. Breathe. Talk more. Listen more. If you hear silence, that’s okay. Keep on anyway.

I mentioned God by another name here, Most High. This is what God—the LORD—is called in Psalm 92, scripture I preached from this past Sunday.

A column isn’t a sermon. I love that the two are so different, and, if (or as) you keep reading me weekly, I think you’ll see the same. Rarely is it a “One and done” with God. As you can glean from Psalm 92, this means that our faith is something we build upon, something we grow.

And this goodness of God? It just comes. It does. Even—or especially—through the hard places or times in your life, God’s goodness comes. Even—or especially—when we screw up (and, boy, do we screw up)—God’s goodness is constant.

Talk to God about trust. You’ll find that it is God who keeps asking the questions about trust, not me.

We are going back to the bridge. In your mind’s eye, go there. Say to the Most High, “I trust you.”

See what happens. With me, you’ll find joy in the fact that you get to keep walking.

Walking that is. Not jumping.

Every step. Every step. There is God with you.