How living with God and for God can be the ultimate trust fall

By Dean Collins

Have you ever experienced a trust fall? It is a common team-building exercise used in leadership development programs. Depending on the leader and the group, the exercise can take different forms. The individual stands on the ground or possibly a few feet in the air on a platform, facing away from the group below whose members create an aisle with a line of group members on either side of the participant. There are different variations of this exercise where the individual chooses when to allow themselves to fall back to a version that has someone push the individual backward. In either case, the participant must trust that the group of peers will catch him or her. The group also must trust that they will rally and catch the participant without anyone experiencing harm.

The purpose of the exercise is to learn to trust each other. Over the years, I have led this exercise many times. I have also been in groups where I was the participant who fell back and trusted that those assembled below would catch me. I have done this with youth as well as with corporate executives. It takes an element of faith to participate in this exercise, and it takes an element of faith to lead the exercise.

The leader of the trust fall hopes this trust will translate into the group trusting each other outside of the context of a leadership development exercise. I have no research data to prove this, but my observation is that the exercise doesn’t translate into long-term results of trust among the team members. It does give you a temporary sense of satisfaction that you fell and the group caught you.

Trust in the Lord

Proverbs 3:5-6 contains words familiar to many. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” I memorized this text years ago. I have tried to live this truth for decades. What I have learned is that it is both a principle to live by and a daily exercise of faith.

If you have read scripture and heard good teaching and preaching, then you know the principle is sound. Over and over we are called to trust in the Lord. We know discipleship is a journey of faith. And over and over we have experienced that God does in fact come through, even though we have also realized that the path he leads us on is often not the one we would have chosen. In fact, it is often the path we would have avoided and possibly warned others not to take.

How many times has the path been as David described it, “the shadows of death”? If you were on a hike and you came to a fork in the road and one was marked “shadows of death” and the other “peaceful valley,” which would you pick? If you knew you could safely pass with no harm and just thrills, maybe you’d choose “shadows of death. But as you and I both know, our lives are not always like a day in an amusement park. We often face real shadows, and they are often quite frightening.

Trust in ourselves

And what about our tendency to depend on our own expertise and understanding? It is a part of our daily practice in many areas of life. One’s own understanding of everything from budgeting to driving depends on leveraging what we have learned in classes and in life. Yet when it comes to the ultimate tests of life, our own understanding sometimes leaves us staring at a blank page or worse, a cliff that suggests danger. Solomon tells us that in these moments we must apply the principle of faith. We can choose to place all of our weight in the hands of the Almighty and know he will not drop us. He will catch us, hold us, and point us toward the path that may be lit dimly yet is the path we must walk by faith.

Lord, some days it seems easy and natural to trust you with all our heart. And some days it is difficult because the risk seems too great. We pray that in our challenging moments you would increase our faith and that we would fully trust you and not what we see or understand. We choose you. We ask that today you would show us the path you want us to travel in every area of friendship, family, and work. Thank you for this eternal promise that we can depend on you for direction and for life itself. We will walk toward you fully today, knowing you will lead us now and forever. Amen.

Your time with God’s Word
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭3‬:‭5‬-‭6‬ ‭NLT

Photo by Leio McLaren on Unsplash

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