I saw a meme the other day that got me thinking. It said something like, “Being a child must be so weird. Imagine falling asleep at wal-mart and waking up in your bed.” Or maybe you’ve seen a similar one that goes something like, “I miss the days when I could teleport. Its been years since I’ve fallen asleep on the couch and woken up the next morning in my bed.”
It’s fascinating to me how the human brain works and grows and develops. These quotes caught my attention because I don’t have any memories of falling asleep somewhere and waking up somewhere different. I definitely don’t have any memories of thinking that was weird. My kids have never woken up in the morning and been confused about how they got in their beds. It’s almost as if they don’t remember falling asleep the night before at all.
There has to be some amount of a lack of brain developement to fully process what is going on or what just happened, mixed with a total trust in an adult to take care of their every need. Plus, just the simple fact that their bodies are working so hard at growing that there comes a point where exhaustion takes over and they pass out wherever they are. Kids don’t wake up and freak out because they aren’t where they thought they were. They just wake up and start their day as if nothing weird happened at all. Or they wake up from a nap, are happy to see you, and get back to living, either ready to eat or ready to play.
Scientists have done research on how the brain develops and we know that the meeting of certain basic needs, like food, shelter, security, or the lack of these needs being met, has a great impact on the development of a child’s brain. When they aren’t concerned with meeting their basic needs, their brain is free to focus on developing more complicated processes, but when those needs are not being met, the development of maturity and critical thinking skill is stunted and they are almost frozen in time. When the basic needs of a child are being met, they can handle stresses and change, disappointments and surprises easier, because there is a basic knowledge and trust in something bigger and stronger than them to take care of those basic needs. If something happens that they weren’t expecting or don’t understand, like waking up somewhere different than where they fell asleep, their world doesn’t lose all meaning.
What would that look like in our lives, to have that much faith in someone that we don’t have to understand everything all the time? This is something I’m really working on, because my natural personality looks for understanding in order to feel safe. When something unexpected happens, my brain automatically switches into information mode, just trying to make it all make sense. I’ve recently learned that everyone doesn’t store away tons of random information in mental filing cabinets, just in case they need it one day. But the truth is, that my understanding of a situation is not what keeps me safe. I’m safe because I have put my life in the hands of the strongest, most powerful, most loving and wisest option.
If a baby can trust a human parent enough to fall asleep anywhere, then why can’t I trust God with every detail of my life? There are many times I say I trust God but when the first little thing happens that I wasn’t expecting or I don’t understand, or heaven forbid, I didn’t want to happen, then I start questioning some attribute of God. Maybe He isn’t as good as I thought He was, maybe He isn’t as wise? Maybe He doesn’t really love me? Instead, I want to be so sure of what I know to be true about God, that when something unexpected happens, or something that initially seems bad, I have more trust in God than in my circumstances. I want to trust in the goodness of God so fully and deeply that when I walk through bad or difficult circumstances, or something that scares me, I don’t freak out, because I have faith in the One who controls everything.
I’ve heard people explain it like this, if you knew what God knows, then you would make the same choices He does. If you had access to all the knowledge of time and eternity, you would choose the same circumstances that He has chosen to allow in your life. Is it possible that they only seem like bad or difficult circumstances to us now because we don’t know everything? Maybe we don’t have big enough dreams or purpose for our lives to understand why we are walking through a trial or training season, but God does.
I was talking with some friends the other day about letting go of control and allowing God to be in charge of your life, even through difficult trials. Something was said about how great it is when God uses something difficult we walk through to minister to other people. I know God does do that and when you allow the Holy Spirit to work through you in that way, it blesses your heart. But the comment was made that even after that experience, if they could change it, they would still choose to escape walking through the hard thing.
I think probably a lot of people can relate to this. Those experiences are so painful that helping someone else doesn’t really “make it all worth it.” But what if it was more than that? What if God didn’t let bad things happen to you just so you can minister to someone else? He does allow you to share your experiences and help others, but what if every thing He allowed in your life was actually what was best, for you.
See, we still live in a fallen world and yet we were made for a perfect one. Death, pain, injustice, etc is all a result of sin and not the way it was originally intended to be. God has allowed people free will to choose a different way than His. He doesn’t control people, but He is able to control what happens to you. The Bible as well as recent history is filled with stories of Him stepping in and stopping some plan for someone’s destruction as well as Him allowing evil plans to succeed. He loves you too much to be surprised or caught off-guard by some human’s evil plans against you.
There is a place and time when all evil will cease and nothing bad or sad will ever happen again. This is the world we were made for, it just isn’t quite here yet. We can long for those days with great anticipation because they will be the most amazing. But for now, we have to be willing to accept whatever circumstances come our way as God still in control and trust that He knows what He’s doing.
Every new challenge or circumstance is a chance to practice letting it go and believing that everything you think is yours or you are scared to lose, all belonged to God to begin with. It’s time to just rest in His power and strength and wisdom, the way a baby can trust their parents enough to fall asleep anywhere.
Your Fellow Traveler
Lacey
Find True Joy 