The best in the business

Personal Photo: This is Clay's mountain bike, and I took this photo with the Muddy Maumee River in the background. We went for a bike ride to celebrate our one-year wedding anniversary. We rode to the river and had a little picnic, even with the treat of seeing a couple bald eagles. It was a special memory. Bikes have always been part of my family, and I remember getting so excited when we took family bike rides with my parents and brothers growing up :)

My dad has always loved cycling, and for years, we never missed the Tour de France. He loves the simplicity and the engineering behind the invention of the bicycle, and recently, my mom found him a DVD to watch during his cycling workouts. They made mention of it to me just a couple days ago, and a story that stood out from it:

The video shows different aspects of the dedication to the sport that it takes to compete in the Tour de France. One person featured in the documentary is Mark Cavendish, who is an elite professional road racing cyclist, arguably the best in history. He spoke about how it was quite difficult to ride on the cobblestones of France's roads, with the dense crowds of competitors, the cameramen, the vehicles, and more. The riders were often going speeds of about 60 kilometers and had to go around sharp turns and corners. In the film, Cavendish expressed how important the aspect of trust was when he was riding. He would be a very short distance from his lead-out rider, but he trusted in him completely. Cavendish's lead-out was, in his words, "the best in the business" and Cavendish put his riding career at the mercy of him. He noted that if his lead-out could make it around the curve, on cobblestones, at 60 kilometers an hour, then he could too.

What was so intriguing about the story was this element of trust that Cavendish expressed. If his lead-out was wrong, was going too fast, slipped up, etc. then Cavendish could get very seriously injured, and it could not only ruin the race for himself and his team, but it would put his entire career at risk. I was fascinated that Cavendish called his lead-out 'the best in the business.' It is clear that he trusts him, that there was no doubt about who he had put his faith in. This was one of those stories that really caught my ear when my dad was telling it. I had such a hard time putting myself in Cavendish's position, one where I would need to trust someone with everything I have. I like control over my life, not being dependent upon others, etc. And then it hit me that we are really faced with that choice every single day, aren't we? When we apply this concept of trust to our faith in God, our ability to trust in Him completely, I find that there really is a lot we can learn.

Trust is quite temperamental when we look at it; when life is going well, we tend to lean more heavily on ourselves, but when we find ourselves stressed, anxious, and fearful, we look to God. We might trust Him more with things like our destiny, our overall meaning in life, but not think so much about it when we get behind the wheel of a car or we are working out. This is really what can make the idea of trust one that is a bit challenging and overwhelming; it can be applied in so many different ways and look very different. How much trust is too much trust? What does that trust look like? How can we be more consistent in our trusting of the Lord with our day to day? The questions go on and on.

The first question I want to address is that question of why. Why should we trust in God? The answer to that lies in Hebrews 13:8, which reads "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." This direct response to the question of 'why' explains to us that the loving, merciful, welcoming, saving Christ that we read about in the Bible is the same Christ that we encounter every single day. He is living inside of us, He is the joy that we feel, He is the sacrifice for our eternal life. In this way, we can trust that He is everlasting, He is consistent, and He is steady. Isaiah 26:4 tells us to "Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock." Here we see the reinforcement of the Hebrews verse, but with the command to trust in Him. Understanding that God is never going to change His mind about loving us, protecting us, and guiding us, helps us put our trust in Him. His consistency provides a level of peace when we know we can turn to Him anytime, for anything and He will hear us and help us.

As I mentioned above, trust can be quite ambiguous, but I am tackling the subject because in a world of such fear, anguish, anxiety, and uncertainty, being able to practice trusting in God can literally change our lives. When we stop putting our trust in the world, our peers, ourselves for happiness, protection, and guidance, we can find calm in the storm around us. Essentially, when we put our trust in God, we silence the devil's obnoxious attempts to discredit the Lord's capability to carry out His promises. Psalm 112:7 tells us "They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the LORD." This addresses the relationship between fear and trusting in God, explaining the negative correlation between the two. The more we trust in the Lord, the less fear we have, and vice versa. In this way, we can see how important it is for us to put our faith in Him, and the reward we get for doing so. Jeremiah 17:7-8 gives us an example of how trusting in God can provide to us the peace that is such a commodity in this world: “But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” When we put our trust in God, we can have confidence in the promise that He will never lead us astray. This visual of what it feels like and what it looks like to practice this trust can help put into perspective how life-changing it is, along with how important it is for us to do so.

The different applications of trust can sometimes be a little intimidating, especially since trust is so conditional in the world we live in. To help, we can reference Proverbs 3:5, which tells us to "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding." Here we can see that we are not to only put our trust in God with some things in our life, but in all things, with our whole heart. He is with us more than just when we are anxious, or when we are uncertain, as He is with us through every single step, even the small ones when we can often overlook an opportunity to put our trust into Him. This Proverbs verse tells us that we are to trust in Him with all our heart, which explains just how confident we can be in the Lord's attention to us, His ability to carry us through every season of life, and so on. In this way, we can clarify the ambiguity of trust by seeking God in every single thing we do. When we do this, the turbulence we feel, the uncertainty of the future, and the moments of overconfidence can all be abandoned and left at the base of the cross.

I titled this article 'The best in the business' because of Cavendish's confidence in his lead-out. This statement expresses complete trust in the capabilities of his teammate. We can relate; Our all-knowing Lord is metaphorically 'the best in the business,' meaning that there is no one better suited to love us, care for us, listen to us, protect us, guide us, etc. than our Heavenly Father. He will not make a mistake, He will not lead us astray, He will not take us somewhere that He cannot take us out of, and so on. Psalm 37:5 reminds us to "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act." When we practice trusting in the Lord, we can have faith that He will carry out His plans for us, that we will find peace, and that He is worth putting our trust in.

Amidst the turbulence of the world around us, the cries from the devil and his workers to give them attention and trust, it is crucial that we remember what is means and why we are to trust in the Lord. He is everlasting, He is merciful, and He is worth trusting. God can transform our hearts, our minds, and our lives when we trust in His promises, in His ability to care for us, protect us, and guide us. If God tells us that we can make it, then we can make it. And the only way that we can believe in that, that we can prove it to be true, that we can see where God is leading us, is to trust in Him. It is always worth it!