SCRIPTURE: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach…for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. James 1:5-6

THOUGHT: In Ruthless Trust, Brennan Manning shares a story about a famous ethicist, Rev. John Kavanaugh, who goes to Mother Teresa for advice. He asks her to pray for him for clarity and she refuses. A shocked Kavanaugh presses her about clarity in her own life and she laughs and says: “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.”

On some level, clarity is without risk where trust is full of risk and vulnerability: I might not hear. I might not get it right. I might not please. I might not succeed. But where clarity can be about anxiety and fear of failing, trust is about taking a leap when I know what God has said. It’s about going forward with confidence that I have submitted my way to him, and he is directing my steps.

This is the path of wisdom and I love how simple James makes it. Ask God for wisdom and he will say “yes.” Boom. End of story. Oh, except we need to be listening and following and trusting.

If the path leads through the valley of the shadow, so be it – that does not mean God has failed to hear or give guidance, or I have failed to listen.  We move into what is unknown based on Who we know, like Abraham venturing into a strange land, or Jesus venturing ever nearer to the cross. We don’t take those steps because things are clear, we take them because we’ve heard from God Almighty.

PRAYER: Oh God, we long for clarity, yet you have asked us to trust you even when the way is not clear. Help our trust be robust when we ask for wisdom, looking more like a boat harnessing the wind than a wave driven every which way by it.