Simple, Ruthless Trust
by Christina Bledsoe
I consider myself a simple person. Along with my husband and dog, I live in a small 90-year-old house with only one bathroom, drive a Honda, take modest vacations, and have been known to frequent thrift stores. I hate waste, love couponing, and consider a weekend spent reading books or watching movies to be time well spent.
On the exterior, I am quite simple. On the interior, my brain never shuts off. I am not a deep thinker, but I am a constant thinker; my brain is always on the go. In fact, I did not know everyone’s brain did not work like mine until much later in life. You mean to tell me everyone doesn’t lay awake running through worst-case-scenarios for hours before finally drifting off (and then dreaming about more worst-case-scenarios)?
Growing up in the church, religion felt complicated to me. There were so many rules, so much to read, so much to do. I recall being a 9-year-old child and asking my grandmother if the children in Africa would go to hell if they died without accepting Jesus. She gave a non-answer by telling me it was my responsibility to spread the word of God to the ends of the earth. Whoa – that is a big responsibility for a child who had never even left the United States. Even at 9 years of age, my mind was spinning; I needed to save those African children from the eternal flames of hell. It was MY responsibility!
As a teenager, there were more rules - mostly surrounding purity and my safety. But still, more rules? I knew I loved Jesus; I knew He was my Savior, but the constant feeling that I had to do it all and my self-imposed perfectionism made it impossible to feel I could ever succeed as a Christian.
If I could go back in time, I would sit with my younger self and explain the following two principles that make Christianity feel so much simpler:
Love God, Love Others, Make Disciples:
This is the mission statement at the church I attend. Yes, it is that simple. And the Bible proves it is that simple in Matthew 22:37 when Jesus says “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself.”
My grandma would be thrilled that my church has added “Make Disciples” and I have grown enough to understand that it is not my job to convince those around me to give their heart to Jesus. It is simply my job to love them, to be the hands, feet and mouth of Jesus and let Him do the rest.
Ruthless Trust:
In the book Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning, he tells the story of John Kavanaugh who went to work with Mother Teresa in Calcutta. Upon meeting Mother Teresa, he asked her to pray for him and she asked for his prayer request. He replied, asking her to pray for him to have clarity.
She said firmly, “No, I will not do that.” When he asked her why, she said, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.” When Kavanaugh commented that she always seemed to have the clarity he longed for, she laughed and said, “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So, I will pray that you trust God.”
Ruthless trust does not necessarily equate to lack of confusion. But “when all else is unclear, the heart of trust says, as Jesus did on the cross, ‘Into your hands I commit my spirit’” (Mother Teresa in Manning’s Ruthless Trust and Luke 23:46).
A lightbulb went off in my head; it really is that simple. Pray for trust. When I pray for the health & safety of my husband and children, I just need to pray and confidently tell God “I trust you with the health & safety of my family;” it all boils down to trust.
On those days and nights when my anxious brain and heart spin and race, I know my default is to simply say “I love You and I trust You” and know that is enough.
What about you? Does your faith feel complicated? Are you clinging to a desire for clarity when all God really wants from you is your ruthless trust? What would you tell your younger self? Keep it simple.
