Spiritual diabetes

Living with an insulin-dependent diabetic has been a real education. In the ten years since my son was diagnosed with Type I diabetes I've learned some interesting things about food, metabolism and how the body functions. Normally, when a person eats, the sugars are broken down and enter the blood stream. At that point insulin, produced by the pancreas, converts these sugars to food that the cells of our body need to function. In diabetics the pancreas is not producing the insulin needed to convert the blood sugars into usable food for the cells. It's entirely possible for an untreated diabetic to be eating heartily and, at the same time, be starving at the cellular level.

This is the way it is with life. We can be eating heartily from the banquet of life--enjoying opportunities, working hard, playing hard, striving for all the things we've been convinced will bring us some level of satisfaction or sense of worth. We may even manage to achieve some level of fulfillment and contentment. But it is entirely possible that we may still be starving at the spiritual level.

Jesus taught his followers that they are happy and blessed when they "hunger and thirst for righteousness" (Matthew 5:6). Jesus was teaching us to recognize that our deepest hunger must be for a right relationship with God and with other people. Our other pursuits--work, school, family, recreation, even the altruistic things we do to improve our community, will not bring us full satisfaction unless they are put into perspective by an overarching desire to satisfy our hunger and thirst for a right relationship with God and with other people.

In God We Trust

For God alone my soul waits in silence,
for my hope is from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my deliverance and my honor;
my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.
Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us.

Psalm 62:5-8

“In God we trust”: The idea for putting the phrase on US currency was conceived by Salmon P. Chase, the US Treasury Secretary under President Abraham Lincoln. Chase wrote in 1861, “no nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins.”

Over the years various groups have petitioned the Supreme Court to remove it, but the motto has always survived. The Supreme Court has ruled that mottos and other religious language may remain “chiefly because they have lost through rote repetition any significant religious content.” Sadly, according to the Supreme Court, we see it or say it so often that “In God We Trust” has lost all religious meaning.

Has trusting in God lost meaning in your life? Are there circumstances in your life that you don’t believe God has the power to influence or cares enough about to do anything?

King David’s trust in God was the chief stabilizing force in his life. Listen to the words he used to describe God’s influence in his chaotic life. God is the source of his “hope.” God is his “rock,” his “salvation,” and “fortress.” God is his “deliverer” and the source of his “honor.” Nothing could shake David or knock him off his base. “Trust in God at all times” was not a mere motto to David, it was a life principle that was the core of his survival and success.

Centuries later, Jesus prepared his disciples for their life of mission with this assurance: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” (Matthew 28:18) The power and love of God that David spoke about in Psalm 62 now resides in our Deliverer, Jesus Christ. Christ is our refuge, our fortress, in whom we will not be shaken. The testimony of the Bible and countless Christians in every generation since Christ was born is that Christ indeed has the power and the care to be our help and refuge.

David encourages us to “pour our hearts out” before the Lord. David encourages us to unburden ourselves with whatever is weighing upon our minds…good or bad. Prayerfully take these things to Christ in whom all authority and power in heaven and on earth reside. It is in expectant prayer…unburdening prayer…that “In God We Trust” transforms a motto into a way of life that is at the core of our survival and success.

“In God We Trust”…may that motto never lose its meaning or its power in our lives!