Are you struggling to Trust in the Lord?
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.” — Proverbs 3:5
If we’ve talked for a while, chances are you’ve heard me tell the Henri Nouwen story about the trapeze! I like to share it because of how much of an impact it made on my thinking and understanding this “With God” kind of life. Today, I’d like to share with you again (or maybe for the first time) in hope that it will encourage your soul.
Henri Nouwen, a Dutch theologian and Yale/Harvard professor, once described his experience watching a trapeze troupe perform. At first, it seemed the flyer—the one leaping and twisting in midair—was the star of the show. She would be tossed to and fro, doing amazing tricks, flips, and spins! The audience would “awwwww” at her and clap. But as Henri watched more closely, he realized: the flyer’s brilliance, her ability to be spectacularly fly through the air, depended entirely on the catcher. Without the catcher’s strength, timing, and reliability, the flyer would never dare to leap, let alone soar.
As he continued to think about this event, Henri decided to try the trapeze himself, he wanted to discover this truth personally. So, suspended high above the ground, this 60-something Harvard professor went up the beams and let go! To his own surprise, he began to giggle merrily like a child as he too were tossed to and fro in mid-air. Instead of fear, he felt freedom. Why? Because he knew he would be caught. That kind certainty gave him permission to let go, to trust, and to enjoy the moment with joy and laughter.
Reflecting on the experience, he wrote:
“I can only fly freely when I know there is a catcher to catch me. If we are to take risks, to be free, in the air or in life, we have to trust the catcher.”
This is a picture of life with God. The real hero of our story is not us but the One who catches us. His presence makes us eternally safe, whether in joy or in suffering, in life or in death.
As Paul wrote:
“For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:8)
Dallas Willard captured the same reality: “This present world is a perfectly safe place for us to be”—not because it is free from pain, but because we are never outside the care of our Good Shepherd.
When we reimagine this kind of life with God, we begin to see that everything is held in His hands. We are never abandoned in midair. We are caught, carried, and covered by His promises:
“He alone is my refuge, my fortress;
my God, in whom I trust.
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.” (Psalm 91:2–4)
To live with God is to live as if this is true—to laugh in the air, to risk obedience, to release control because you know the Catcher will never let you fall.
This kind of trust is not passive, it’s the active resting of our hearts in God’s character. True faith clings not to outcomes but to a Person. God is both sovereign and good, completely able to catch us, and perfectly loving so that He wants to. When we hold those truths together, we can let go without fear.
Trust is not vague optimism but a concrete act of surrender that loosens our grip on control and entrusts ourselves fully to the One who delights to catch us.
