Restoring Simple Trust

As I was watching my 10 year old son, Joshua, practice for baseball I was struck by a little girl about 4 or 5 years old who came up to pet my very blond golden retriever.  As she petted Shiloh, she began to jabber about something I think it was about her own dog from what I could catch which was a lab.  I wandered where this innocent, sweet, adorable little girl's parents were.  I later learned her dad was helping coach her brother in the other field next to where my son was practicing.  The Holy Spirit later spoke to me when I awoke one morning about being childlike in faith and trust.  This is a theme from Matthew 18:1-5 where Jesus gives the disciples an object lesson when they were arguing about who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.  In this simple act Jesus redefines what they believe the hierarchy of heaven looks like, they are caught up in the ranks of power in the world system but Jesus, perfectly connected to the Father and heaven, displays that greatness comes through humility and trust not strength, human wisdom, intelligence, or power of the day.  The Holy Spirit was again reminding me that the world of the Father and how He sees things is radically different than this world and that in order to gain favor in heaven we must come to Him as a little child.  Jack Winter in his book "Homecoming" says, "The simple truth is that we need a father.  We need to be parented.  That is why, as Jesus shares in the passage from the Gospel of Matthew, we must humble ourselves and become "like little children" (v. 3).  One day I asked, "Lord, how can a grown man become a little child?"  And this is His reply:  "Men are just little boys, and women are just little girls, who have gotten big."  Inside each of us is a little child that needs to be loved.  When we humble ourselves and admit that truth, then and only then can the Father come and minister His love to us."  I believe Jesus is revealing to the disciples one of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God and a key to life abundantly.  Yet on an orphan planet where people are constantly jockeying for position, power, prestige, and affection Jesus words are like lightening on the background of a dark sky.  His words are shocking and challenge so much of our "adult" thinking which is really laced with distrust, fear, self-protection, and striving (orphan).  Where in stark contrast this sweet and innocent little girl exuded a simple trust, that in this world is potentially dangerous for her.  As we watch the news, we see that this world is filled with people who would take advantage of her innocence and simple trust to exploit or use her.  Sex trafficking is on the rise worldwide with statistics now saying there are 27 million that are slaves in the human trafficking, most girls are used for prostitution.  There is the clash of the kingdoms, the evil of sin and darkness on one side and the light of the innocence of God's creation on the other.  In order to experience the Kingdom of heaven we must repent as Jesus says and become childlike in our trust, to be parented by the perfect, loving, and pure Father.  Repenting and being childlike means opening up the vulnerable, weak, and wounded places in our hearts to allow a loving Father to comfort, heal, and protect.  People of my day that I greatly honor, Heidi Baker, Randy Clark, Bill Johnson, and Leif Hetland seem to operate in a simple trust of God even while sharing profound and deep wisdom.  They live there lives from a place of trusting Father for all of their life, yet there are human too and probably have areas that they are growing in trust.  I find while I have grown in many areas of my life and faith, there is still a 6 year old child (when my dad who committed suicide) who has been walled off from God and others.  It is from this place in my heart that I am truly learning about trust, not as an intellectual exercise but as a journey of the heart into the vastness of the Father's love.  It is from this place in my heart where I can truly be fathered, loved, and matured.  I don't believe heaven is drawn to our self-protection, striving, or latest way to fulfill our purpose apart from Him, in contrast heaven is drawn by humility, vulnerability, and weakness mixed with looking His direction.  Father has issued an invitation from Heaven through His Son Jesus Christ for us to humble ourselves, open our hearts at the deepest level to trust, and be fathered into a place of love and rest (home).  I believe home is not a physical building but a place God wants to make in our hearts with Him.

Toddling home,
Bret