The recipe for success

Psalm 49:13-14a

This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings.  Like sheep they are destined for the grave, and death will feed on them.  NIV

This is a pretty terrifying picture.

But, it also is, I think, a very clear recipe for avoiding worry.

The fate of those who trust in themselves … death will feed on them.

I just keep thinking about the latest C.S. Lewis movie.  The antagonist is a mist of unknown origin that is swallowing people whole.  Throughout the movie, the heroes get visited by the mist, and in it they see their own insecurities and are tempted to try to conquer them on their own.

The fate of those who trust in themselves … death will feed on them.

You can’t trust in yourself … you’re not trustworthy.  As humans, we are ruled by emotions, we don’t have the complete picture, and, as a result, we often make poor decisions.  When the decisions we make on our own inevitably turn out less than ideally, we doubt our abilities (rightly so) and this causes us to worry.

But, it shouldn’t.

Once we’ve tried the independence thing a few times, with not-so-good results, it seems that we would learn the recipe for success:  Trust God.

God is trustworthy.  God is not ruled by emotion.  God has the complete picture.

The future is not our responsibility, and, to try to take responsibility for it is to invite worries and stresses that we, well, we just don’t need.

That’s what I’ll think about today.