Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

Years ago my mother had a powerful experience with the Lord.  It involved the death of a good friend.  He was a younger man with a wife and a young son.  They attended the same church with Mom and Dad and had been dear friends for years.  His wife had been Mom’s nurse when I was born.  Mom had a strong relationship with the Lord but she just couldn’t understand how this young Christian man could die and this family suffers such loss.

I remember so clearly her describing the experience afterwards.  She was downstairs in the basement doing laundry.  She was overcome with sorrow over the death of this friend and just couldn’t understand how it could happen.  He and his wife were so young; life was there to be lived with his family; how could this happen?

She was standing in front of the washing machine, tears coming down her face, repeating over and over to God, “I just don’t understand.”  Into that moment, the Lord spoke to her so suddenly and clearly, that she never doubted that it was Him.  He said, ‘Louise – You don’t have to understand.  You have to trust!”

This had an immediate and profound impact on Mom.  While she still didn’t understand, she turned to the Lord, and released it to Him.  In Him, the edge of the pain dissipated.  In Him, she found peace.  In Him, she found refuge.  She was no longer a tormented ‘prisoner’ of having to understand this death.  She was able to mourn in a healthy place.

Today, while we remember 9/11, we are stunned and heart-broken by yesterday’s assassination of Charlie Kirk!  The stunning reputation he had as a faith-filled lover of Jesus is known throughout the world!! His legacy is priceless. While praying and struggling with his death, I thought of Stephen, the 1st Christian martyr (Acts 6 & 7). He was a Godly young man about the very same age as Charlie! His legacy had a profound impact on the world. Charlie’s legacy is being used and will always be used too!!

So often we struggle with trying to understand events that happen. Today’s verse is a powerful answer – not a cop-out.  Proverbs 3:6 continues, in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.  We must look to God in all things.  Hopefully we have made it a way of life to trust in Him.