In the Peanut’s cartoon of yesteryear, Charlie Brown thought Lucy was the prettiest girl he had ever met. But Lucy wasn’t always to be trusted. The classic picture was Lucy holding a football positioned for Charlie Brown to kick. Charlie would run hard to kick it a long way, but in the last moment Lucy would yank the football away. The next picture was of bewildered Charlie Brown flat on his back looking up as Lucy would say something like, “I admire you Charlie Brown. You have such faith in human nature.” Creator Charles Schulz had touched the nerve of nearly every human—broken trust. After ending up on our back looking up, our expectations crushed, we eventually tend to get cynical and guarded before taking a risk to trust again.
When pondering the passion week of Jesus, I was struck when considering His last words before dying on the cross. Matthew records Jesus’ words as, “…My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46, ESV). This question reveals His human expectations of never being forsaken by God—not so different from our expectations. I cringe to try to imagine how I might feel if Connie, my wife of over 50 wonderful years of marriage, unexpectedly forsook me. This must have been nearly unbearable for Jesus!
I don’t know that I would be as resilient as Charlie Brown by putting myself in a position where it could happen to me again. Jesus’ trust in His Father must have been so strong it anesthetized his human feeling of crushed expectations. Because within minutes of feeling that kind of forsaken, Jesus’s last words were, … “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46, ESV). That is too profound for me to get my mind around! Would any of us go that quickly from the excruciating feeling of crushed expectations to entrusting our very future entirely into the hands of the very close friend who we felt had turned her/his head away from us?
When we humans feel like we are in a deep, dark spot in our life, our emotions and thoughts are keenly sensitive. If we believe God had led us into such a dark tunnel in which we can see no light movingly forward, the authenticity of our trust in God is put on the line! In Acts 6-7, Stephen could easily have felt abandoned when being stoned to death after having so boldly served Christ—but he didn’t! The proof of his trust in Christ was seen in the fact that instead of withdrawing he looked up and saw Christ standing (rather than sitting) at the right hand of His Father watching Stephen endure such abuse. His trust in Christ was not distracted by his circumstances.
The proof of our trust is not in what we think we know, say we believe or in how well we can articulate it, or even in how long we’ve held to what we think we believe. Rather, it is most evident when our life or future is at risk or God does something contrary to what we prefer. If our love for our preferences or ideology is greater than our love for our God, it will put our spiritual future in risk. The three Hebrew children modeled for us a trust and love for God by saying, “But even if he doesn’t [do as we prefer], we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up” (Daniel 3:18, NLT2).