Do what we can, where we are, with what we have – AND TRUST JESUS FOR THE OUTCOME.
It’s a core principle at The FREEDOM TOUR, but I find it’s much easier to say than to do. Not the doing part – we’re conditioned for that.
Trusting is the hard part.
As an old teacher, I wonder how the caretakers at the Home of Hope teach something like that to a child who has survived the trauma of sex trafficking who’s been programmed to trust no one. I suspect there are no words to bridge that kind of gap.
This old teacher knows, from hard experience: Talking isn’t teaching, and listening isn’t learning.
I’m guessing there’s only one way to communicate the “trust” part, and that’s by doing it. Day by day, through the times when circumstances seem impossible, those folks have to do their best, and then demonstrate their trust in Jesus for the outcome.
I can’t imagine how hard that is. Kids recovering from trauma, frequently acting out. Unsupportive political environment creating an often-unstable situation. Consistent threat from traffickers who would eagerly snatch a child back to captivity.
A child sees an adult trusting Jesus in those circumstances, when it’s hard, when it doesn’t make sense, over the long term – that child might decide trusting Jesus makes sense.
It’s a lesson for us. We can listen to sermons. People can tell us, over and over, it’s the right thing. But we learn to trust by observing.
For a child, it’s likely a trusted adult. For us, it might be someone else, or it might be observing our own experience, recognizing the times we’ve tried and failed to control outcomes but felt Jesus’ calming, perhaps unexpected, presence.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”