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Praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD, my soul.
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD their God.
(Psalm 146:1-5)

Yesterday, Pastor Michael reminded us that as followers of the victorious Lord Jesus Christ, we use divine strategies for navigating our way in the world, not human ones.

And that makes us a bit strange.

But it\u2019s a theme that flows through the full breadth of the Bible\u2014even here in these last five praise Psalms of the Psalter.

It\u2019s a theme the Church tends to forget though, just like the rest of God\u2019s people throughout the ages. Or at least, we have a hard time grasping it. And the crux of the problem is probably this: God asks that as we rely on Him\u2014the God who we can\u2019t see\u2014we drop our reliance on many of the things that we can see: humans, government, insurance providers, political parties, the strength of our own actions and agency in the world, the number in our bank account, you name it.

God asks us to let go of the things that we feel we have some control over in order to trust in Him, the God who we cannot control.

What a difficult thing.

At many-a leadership training retreat, you\u2019ll find an exercise called the \u201ctrust fall.\u201d One of the folks at the retreat will be blindfolded, told to cross their arms in front of their chest so that they can\u2019t use their arms, and then are told to lean back until they fall over. The idea being, that the rest of the members of the team behind you will catch you, not letting you hit the ground. Of course, you\u2019re blindfolded, so you can\u2019t be sure that they\u2019re there. And, maybe you don\u2019t know these people all that well\u2014are they the sorts of folks that would let you fall just to laugh and point? You don\u2019t know. But you can\u2019t rely on your own legs or arms to catch you either\u2014you\u2019re vulnerable. Helpless. Nothing between you and the floor but the trust that these unseen strangers will indeed do what they said they\u2019d do, and catch you.

Following this God we claim is a lot like that. He tells us that in fact, we\u2019re already vulnerable and unable to do much to save ourselves. Despite the illusions of control we seemingly have over this world and our place in it, we cannot save ourselves. Not from sins, but also not from the generational hurts of our families, the restructuring of our workplace, the plans for reopening schools, the chronic pains of our bodies. We actually have very little control over our world and lives. We\u2019re quite vulnerable, and our position in this world is always somewhat precarious.

So God asks us to let go of the things we can see and to fall into His hands\u2014the hands of the God we cannot see\u2014instead. An act of trust: a trust fall.

It is easier to trust the people we can see though, like our political leaders. Or the things we can hold, like our insurance and OHIP cards. Or the things we can do, like work or think our way to a place of self-sufficiency.

But all these things, including our own strength is guaranteed to fail at some point or another. We don\u2019t live forever. Pandemics happen. So do other crises.

There is only One who can guarantee our trust will not be broken\u2014and that\u2019s God. The only One who remains unchanging amid our changing lives and circumstances, the only One who endures beyond the fleeting strength of our bodies and institutions.

So, will you let yourself fall into the arms of God? Even though you can\u2019t see Him?

Blessed is the one whose hope is in The Lord their God.

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