Never be afraid

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God” Corrie Ten Boom

What a concept? Trust the future. Trust someone or something beyond yourself and your own world. Corrie Ten Boom was a holocaust survivor, imprisoned with her sister and father for sheltering Jews. Both her sister and father died in a concentration camp, while she was released because of a clerical error. It is hard to fathom that such a statement of assured faith could be uttered by someone who had lived through the horrors of a concentration camp, and watched the slow fading away of her beloved sister. How could she trust the future after such a past?

There is only one way – she wholeheartedly trusted in God, and the future He had in store for her.

Your relationship to your future will affect how you live in the present. If you are fearful and worried about the future, there is no peace possible in the present. You can have money, friends, a good job, and still have no peace if you worry that all of this will disappear at a moment’s notice.

There is much emphasis these days on mindfulness – on being fully engaged in the present moment. Although, there is part of me that is drawn to this philosophy, I truly need to have a sense of certainty about my future to fully engage in my present. It is in us, as humans, to look forward, and to wonder.

This must be because of our mortality – the certain awareness that we know that our days and time are limited. There is a set time – who knows how long, but at some point, there will be a future without us. And this is where faith and trust in a known God become so crucial to our peace of mind in the present. How can we embrace this future without a God that cares for us, that holds us, that has a place for us? How can we embrace such a future without the certainty that there is an enduring part of us that moves forward into this known future?

Moses, after many years of wandering in the desert wrote this:

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90: 12)

Lord teach me to number my days, and trust wholeheartedly in a future that you have prepared for me. Only then, can I rest fully and peacefully in the present moment.