The last phone booth in New York City was just taken down. It was a booth in Times Square. A crowd watched. Somehow, it represented the end of an era, when phones were something you had to find and when a phone booth represented a sort of private, quiet space in the middle of things. The quiet spaces may be harder to find.
Instead, we live with accelerating change and increasing stress. A cartoon in the graduate school library where I studied spoke to all of us there. It showed a man on a psychiatrist’s couch. The man looked irritated: “Don’t tell me I’m burning the candle at both ends. I know that. I came for more wax.” We need more than a constructive frame for thinking about life and the future (the first and second petitions of the Lord’s prayer). We need something to help us now which is the subject of the third petition of the prayer.
The third petition in the Lord’s prayer is about trusting God.
It invites us even now to trust God’s will more than our own: “Thy will be done.” It invites us to trust God more than we trust ourselves. And it invites us to remember that we are not alone.
Sometimes faith is understood in terms of the things we believe. But the third petition of the Lord’s prayer isn’t a checklist of beliefs. It invites trust in the relationship with God. It invites us to believe that God cares about us more than we can and has better perspective. It doesn’t promise that life will be as we want it or that it will be without challenges and difficulties. It means that we can trust God even when life is hard.
Trusting God doesn’t mean that we simply resign ourselves to whatever happens. Trust isn’t passive. But it does call for a measure of humility that recognizes that we can get it wrong and add to the mess. Our own desires can be powerful and blinding, our rationales persuasive, our self-deception exquisite.
God expects us to use our minds and talents, to do our best. We were made to make a difference with our life for good, to use the gifts given, and to make good and timely decisions.
But before acting, make a prayer and ask God about the wisdom of the decision. Positive confirmation would be great. Perhaps a verse or story in Scripture will speak to the question you pose, or an experience or encounter, or a conversation with a friend. I have also prayed for some physical distress if I’m not thinking about things in the right way — or need to let it go. Prayer is not only about asking. It is also about listening.
You are not alone. God is trustworthy and cares about you. That awareness can quiet the soul amid all the noise and restore confidence and resolve.
