Trust Me

We are living in a time with a lot of uncertainty. Thousands of people all around the world are dying from covid-19. Schools, colleges, restaurants, and other businesses have been closed. Many have gone out of business, causing thousands of people to lose their jobs. Many people are asking questions like, “How am I going to provide for my family if the economy crashes and I can’t find a new jo

b?” or “Am I going to graduate if my high school doesn’t open again in the fall?” These are only two examples of the worries and concerns that are rushing through our minds as we face a massive world epidemic. We don’t know what our futures will hold. The financial job that we or our parents had or the university we had been preparing for and working so hard to get into, have been put on hold and we aren’t even sure if they will be waiting for us after the quarantine ends. The things that grounded us, that we could turn to remind us that we had a secure future have suddenly been pushed out of our reach. A job or college you had your heart set on may go out of business. In one way or another, this pandemic has shaken up each of our lives in a very painful and real way. It can swing in from nowhere like a wrecking ball, shattering everything we thought we could find hope, meaning, and self-worth in. So who do we turn to? Where can we find hope in a situation that seems to have lost all hope?

One thing that I have spent a lot of time being anxious and worrying about is school. I struggled to learn to read, spell, and do basic math when I was in grade school because of my dyslexia and ADHD. Growing up, I always felt stupid and worthless. Very early on in my schooling, I developed a lot of anxiety about anything that had to do with school. After redoing a grade, spending many afternoons and evenings before bed studying, and most of all, lots of prayer, I was able to learn to read and do math at grade level. I now get mostly A’s and a few B’s, and for the most part, do pretty well in school, but my anxiety towards school followed me into high school. I had panic attacks whenever I got confused in class or the lesson was moving too quickly for me to keep up. I also obsessed over my school work and felt anxious almost any time I got a new assignment. I felt restless the whole bus ride home until I was able to finish all my homework for the day. My anxiety reached its peak at the beginning of my junior year. I became even more swamped with homework than I ever had before. I had always had a lot of homework because my dyslexia makes me a very slow reader. I had been having homework pretty consistently every night since about the third grade. However, this year it reached a point where I would be doing homework from the time I got home from school at about 3:30, to the time I went to bed at about 8:00 or 9:00, with only a short break for dinner. On top of that, I was also finding my math class, algebra 2, drastically more challenging than I had since about the third grade. This, and my massive workload, led to me having a panic attack about two to three times a week. In the second trimester of the year, I had a much easier schedule so that provided a free ticket out of my anxiety problem temporarily. However, it just so happened that my school was closed the day after the term ended, and in April I had to start the third and final trimester of my junior year online. If advanced English and algebra 2 weren't stressful enough in a regular classroom where I could simply raise my hand and ask for clarification whenever I got confused, now I had to figure out how to pass these classes with only zoom meetings and email for directions and clarification. The first week of online school came. I had US history first, and it seems to be going pretty smoothly. Then, I had English and algebra 2. For about half of my first week I was confused on what exactly I was supposed to be doing. On Wednesday, I was about half way through my school work for the day and beginning to feel overwhelmed and stressed out and so I decided to take a break and go on a run to get some of my stress out. I was tying my running shoe, about to leave, when I heard the Holy Spirit say to me, “Trust me.” Just two short, simple words, but they change everything. See the thing is, God is in control. Nothing happens without his consent. He has our best interest at heart. In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul put it this way: “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose for them,” (Romans 8: 28).

In the book of Exodus we can read about a woman that found herself, like us, in a time of great uncertainty. Her name was Jochebed (Exodus 6: 20). She was a Jew living as a slave in the land of Egypt. The Israelites had been enslaved by the Egyptians for 400 years and their population had grown to a massive number. Pharaoh, or the king, had started to worry that they would grow so numerous that the Egyptians would no longer be able to control them and they would overthrow him. So, to keep this from happening, he ordered that every Hebrew baby boy be thrown into the Nile River. “At about this time, a man and woman (Jochebed) from the tribe of Levi got married. The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She saw that he was a special baby and kept him hidden for three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she got a basket made of papyrus reeds and water proofed it with tar and pitch. She put the baby in the basket and laid it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile River. The baby’s sister then stood at a distance, watching to see what would happen to him. Soon Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe in the river, and her attendants walked along the riverbank. When the princess saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it for her. When the princess opened it, she saw the baby. The little boy was crying, and she felt sorry for him. ‘This must be one of the Hebrew children,’ she said. Then the baby’s sister approached the princess.

“‘Should I go and find one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?’ she asked.

“‘Yes, do!’ the princess replied. So the girl went and called the baby’s mother.

“”Take this baby and nurse him for me,’ the princess told the baby’s mother. ‘I will pay you for your help.” So the woman took her baby home and nursed him.

Later, when the boy was older, her mother brought him back to Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him as her own son. The princess named him Moses, for she explained, “I lifted him out of the water,”’ (Exodus 2: 1 - 10). Moses’ mother, Jochebed, had to take a great leap of faith. She realized that she could no longer protect her son from Pharaoh so she laid him in a basket in the Nile River, trusting God to protect him. In verse 2 it says that “she saw that he was a special baby,” (Exodus 2: 2). She knew that he was meant for more. God had a plan for his life. She probably didn’t know what it was, but I believe she knew that God would protect her son when she trusted him. So that is what she did. She gave up trying to control her son's life and his well being and placed him in the hands of the All Mighty. She realized that she could no longer protect her baby on her own. At the time, she may not have known that the same baby that she was laying in a basket in the reeds on the river bank would one day become God’s instrument to deliver their people from their slavery in Egypt and the greatest prophet of all time. She probably was just clinging to the hope that God would protect him and deliver him to somewhere safe to live and grow up. Just like us, she found herself in a situation where the things she held most dear were being torn from her grasp. She could have let herself sink into despair and become angry with God, but instead she put her trust in him. She chose to put her faith in what her own eyes could not see and God used her leap of faith to deliver her own nation. Today God is calling us to do the same. We have to give our most prized possessions and hopes and dreams to God and trust in him. We have to take whatever we have been looking to for hope and self-worth and lay it in the basket and let it float down the river, believing that God is still in control and he will work all things together for our good. He will use that leap of faith to move mountains and work miracles in ways we can’t even imagine. All we had to do is let go and trust.

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about The C.A.N Sisters’ Ministry, leave a comment below, check out our website, or email us at cansistersministry@gmail.com.