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Read: Isaiah 12:2-6
Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid,
for the Lord God[a] is my strength and my might;
he has become my salvation.
Isaiah 12:2
It sounds a little like a mantra – something repeated over and again to bring us to the other side of uncertainty and fear:
I will trust and will not be afraid;
I will trust and will not be afraid;
I will trust and not be afraid….
As a kid, whether or not I ever uttered these specific words, I would bet I said something similar to myself in order to make it down the dark hallway to the bathroom, or to ignore the encroaching sounds of nature right outside my window in the long winter nights.
As a teen, I leaned heavily on the words “trust God,” to the point of writing the letters T.G. on my wristband as I suited up for every high school football game. All it took was a momentary glance at those black letters for my personal mantra “Trust God; Trust God; Trust God” to replay in my mind. In an age when athletes were just beginning to don name brand apparel to accompany standard issue uniforms, I found simple, accessible moments of salvation in calling upon God to be my strength and my might. Of course, it was still up to me to run the play, make the tackle, catch the pass. I could – and did – trust God, but I still had to do the work, and the true outcome was never about stats on the field.
This brings to mind one of my favorite proverbs from a desktop calendar, this one coming from North Africa: “trust in God but tether your camel.” This makes me laugh every time it comes around, for it reveals a human tendency to let our faith in the divine become too lofty at times, shirking our own responsibilities in the name of faithful devotion. Trust in God, yes, but don’t neglect the duties of our minds, the discernment of our hearts, the work of our hands. Don’t forget to tie up your camel with a sturdy knot!
This Advent, let us not neglect the things at our disposal that can remind us of our salvation in Christ, things God has already freely given us. “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation!“ Drawing water from a well of salvation requires time, effort, and intention. And as the Samaritan woman realized in the course of her brief conversation with Jesus at a well, spirited, true worship is one of the most reliable wells of salvation we have been given.
God, we thank you for the life-giving well of worship, knowing that this weekly time together brings us true joy and salvation. Amen.
~Casey Callahan
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