Trust is Getting in the Wheelbarrow

What is the difference between faith and trust? Think of a rope strung tightly over Niagara Falls. Near the edge is an aerialist with a wheelbarrow. He says to you, ‘I am going to push this wheelbarrow across Niagara Falls while walking on that tightrope. Do you think I can do it?’ ‘Yes, I think you can,’ you reply. ‘I’ve seen you do it before, so I believe you can do it.’ You have confidence that the acrobat can do what he says he can do. That’s faith. Trust, however, is something else. Trust is getting in the wheelbarrow!

This is similar to what aerialist Charles Blondin, a Frenchman, did in 1859. He actually walked a tightrope across Niagara Falls several times - blindfolded, on stilts, carrying another person, even pushing a wheelbarrow! Though no one was in Blondin’s wheelbarrow, would you have gotten into it, with torrents of water raging under you?

Spiritually speaking, our lives depend on whether or not we climb into God’s wheelbarrow. That takes trust, trust in God’s dependability, and an element of risk when in the midst of darkness and pain, our God cannot be seen or felt. The Scriptures contain many illustrations of men and women who had the foresight to trust God by getting in His wheelbarrow. Abraham walked into the unknown when God called him out of the settled world of Mesopotamia to begin a pilgrimage to a better world of God’s making (Acts 7). He had neither inheritance nor heir, yet he was told he would eventually have both. “Abraham, having taken God for his pilot, and the promise for his card and compass, like a bold adventurer sets up all his sails, regards neither winds nor clouds, but trusts to the wisdom and faithfulness of his Pilot, and bravely makes for the harbor” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary). Abraham, “being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised” (Rom. 4:21), became an example of faith and trust in God’s providences. Faith gave reality to the things that Abraham hoped for. Trust, or confidence in his God, moved this faith Hero to action.

The Dictionary of NT Theology says, “Faith contains the element of being sustained (Hebrew ‘aman’) as well as trust (Hebrew ‘batah’), and merges into hope (Rom. 8:24). Faith provides a platform for trust. Merely believing God can take us across the rope in a wheelbarrow is not enough. We have to take action and get in it! That’s the message of James 2:14-26. Faith without works, (obedience) is useless. “We trust God for good and then we DO good,” Said Spurgeon, “We do not sit still because we trust, but rouse ourselves, and expect the Lord to work through us and by us. We neither trust without doing, nor do without trusting.”

Again and again, Abraham exercised trust founded on faith. By being willing to sacrifice his promised son, Isaac, Abraham "reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death” (Hebrews 11:19). Abraham went forward, not in blind faith, but in complete confidence in God’s trustworthiness. “You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and…that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone” (James 2:22, 24). Thus, we too, must go forward and get in the wheelbarrow during our Christian lives.

We also take steps, as Abraham did, trusting in our Sovereign Creator. God’s ways are sovereign, meaning our all-loving God is in total control of His creation. “The sovereignty of God thus expresses the very nature of God as All-powerful and Omnipotent, able to accomplish His good pleasure, carry out His decreed will, and keep His promises” (Evangelical Dictionary of Theology). In faith, we accept His choice. “Only God can determine what is of value to God,” wrote author Philip Yancey in “Disappointment with God.”

God honors the trust and confidence of Christians. No matter how turbulent the waters, God is with us as our Confidence and Deliverer (Isaiah 43:2; Psalm 65:5). God makes our steps firm. Though we stumble, we “will not fall, for the Lord upholds (us) with His hand” (Psalm 36:23, 24). We need not fear our wheelbarrow falling off the tightrope because God’s Hand anchors us, firmly, securely (Hebrews 6:19). We must “fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). The eye of faith can see what is invisible to the eyes of others. The prophet Elisha saw the hosts of angels, horses and chariots of fire at Dothan (2 Kings 6:13-17). Truly, then, without evidence that you can touch - believing IS seeing! The Apostle Peter, confident in Jesus’ power, walked on water. But when he looked to the turbulent waves and took his eyes off Jesus, doubt trickled quickly in and he sank into the water. We must look to Jesus at all times, not only when the sun is shining or when all is well and our lives are radiant with God’s favor, but at ALL times - even those times when trial, disappointment and adversity fill our lives. “When we stubbornly cling to God in a time of hardship, or when we simply pray, more - much more - may be involved than we ever dream,” says Mr. Yancey. “It requires faith to believe that, and faith to trust that we are never abandoned, no matter how distant God seems.”

Because of her faith in God, one woman is stubbornly clinging to God and has already stepped into His wheelbarrow. She is now crossing a chasm of tragedy, anguish and despair, after losing her two children in a car accident on a rainy night in England… “I came to see suffering in a new light," she says. "I began to realize slowly that it was God’s absolute right as my Creator to allow this tragedy; that they were His children first, only on loan to me. I finally came to the startling realization that ‘Why?’ is not the issue in a crisis. The view that is going to take us from the pit to the high place is saying, ‘Yes, Lord, you have the right. I may never know why and I accept that. And I rededicate myself to Your service any way You want to use me.’ It doesn’t mean I don’t cry every day for my dead children. It doesn’t mean I don’t get depressed about it. It does mean that, as much as possible, I let it rest at the foot of the Cross, knowing that ‘Why?’ is not my question to ask, but ‘What can I do next, my Father?’ is.” This woman is my wife, Wendy. We have come to see that what is unseen is eternal.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus as we are told to do in Hebrews 12:2, to the far side of the falls, and we will receive an eternal inheritance: “a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:11). “God has said, ‘never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5b), “therefore, we may say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my Helper; I will not be afraid’” (vs. 6).

May these words sink deeply into our hearts and minds so we truly know what it is to “Trust in the Lord with ALL of our hearts - lean not to our own understanding - in ALL our ways acknowledge Him - and He SHALL direct our paths!" - Proverbs 3:5

J. Zhorne

O for a faith that will not shrink, though pressed by every foe;

That will not tremble on the brink of any earthly woe;

That will not murmur nor complain beneath the chastening rod,

But in the hour of grief or pain will lean upon its God.

A faith that shines more bright and clear when tempests rage without;

That when in danger knows no fear, in darkness feels no doubt;

A faith that keeps the narrow way, till life’s last hour is fled,

And with a pure and steady ray illumes a dying bed.

Lord, give me such a faith like this, and then whate’er may come;

I’ll taste, e’en here, the hallowed bliss of an eternal home.

William H. Bathurst