Trusting God's Track Record

If we are faithless, he remains faithful. - 2 Timothy 2:13

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. - Lamentations 3:22-23

Since my boyfriend and I started dating, he typically drives when we’re going somewhere. Now, if I’m being honest, I’m kind of weird when I’m in the car with other people. On one hand, I like to be in the passenger seat. I’m great at DJ-ing, getting the driver’s food ready after we’ve gone through the Chick-fil-A drive-thru, and making sure the navigation app is up and running (because apparently my sense of direction alone is not trustworthy). I enjoy being the passenger.

But on the other hand, I also have an issue with not being in control, so I don’t handle it well when I’m not driving.

So when my boyfriend is driving, I tend to get nervous whenever he drives closer to the curb than I would, when he drives faster than I would, and when he applies the brakes later than I would. To take it one step further, every time one of these events happens and I get nervous, I grab the door handle or brace my hand against the roof of the car, just in case there’s impact.

At first, I think my boyfriend thought it was funny. It was one of those slightly annoying, but cute things he thought was endearing when we first started dating.

Now it drives him crazy.

He finally hit his breaking point one day when he looked at me after one of my door-handle-grabbing moments and asked, “Kristen, have I ever put you in danger when you’ve been in the car with me?” I hesitated, knowing he had a point. But after I let the silence linger for a few seconds, I finally answered and said, “No…” Then he asked, “Have we ever gotten into an accident when I’ve been driving you somewhere?” I gave the same answer, “No, you haven’t.” He put the nail in the coffin with his final question, “So then why don’t you trust me to take care of you when I’m driving, and instead you hold onto the door for dear life all the time?”

I didn’t have a good answer for him. He was right. He’d never put me in danger. We’d never had a close call. And we’d never been in any sort of wreck in the months he’d been driving me around. He’d proven himself to have a great track record. And yet for some reason, because I wasn’t in control, I couldn’t relax. I couldn’t just sit comfortably in my passenger seat and trust him to get me where we needed to go.

That’s what it all boiled down to: control. And the more I thought about it, the more I realize that my viewpoint on my boyfriend’s driving was often the same viewpoint I had with God. Just like my boyfriend has a great driving track record with me, God’s track record is even more perfect and even more flawless. He is faithful all the time, and He has proven His faithfulness time and time again as He has come through for me in different seasons and circumstances throughout my life. And yet, when I find myself in situations where I feel out of control, I still doubt Him. I still get nervous. And I still grab the proverbial door-handle.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who struggles with this temptation. After all, we like feeling like we’re in control. We like to feel like we’re in the driver’s seat. But the reality is, we’re always in the passenger seat. God is the driver, and He is in control…we aren’t.

And because He is perfectly faithful, we don’t have to worry every time God does things differently than we would if we were in control. We don’t have to tense up, worry, and freak out when things take an unexpected turn. We can trust Him, because He’s proven Himself faithful. And that is a track record He can’t (and won’t) mess up.

Remember, God always has your best interest at heart. He wants to take care of you. He wants you to follow the path He’s marked out for you. And He wants you to trust Him along the way. So even when life feels out of control, even when your circumstances tempt you to worry, don’t grab the door handle. Instead, relax in the passenger seat. Enjoy the ride. And trust that you have a dependable, loving, faithful God in the driver’s seat.