Faith says to trust God's plan, wisdom says to wash your hands

Faith says to trust God's plan, wisdom says to wash your hands. This is a piece I wrote this week for the church page of the Bulletin in Bandera, Texas.

Most of us know not to lick a doorknob. Somewhere, we've been taught that it is dirty and could make us sick. Yet many of us have had to be told of the importance of washing our hands recently because of the spread of the coronavirus.

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs offers us just one of dozens of verses and teachings through scripture that tell us to trust God and have faith. When life is challenging like it is now with so many unknowns from economic to health concerns, we know God has a bigger plan in store for us. We know how His plan ends, with those who have put their faith in Jesus having a perfect life with Him for eternity, but we don't know what happens between now and then. When it gets hard, it can be harder to trust in Him but that, again is what faith is—believing in Him and His word and believing His promises to be true.

We can't see Him, the world doubts Him and yet we believe in the evidence we have, largely through Scripture and historical supports of it.

Faith tells us to trust His word to us in the Bible and that becomes where wisdom kicks in.

Throughout scripture, we're given instruction and counseled to be wise. That means application of what we learn from scripture but also in life.

Proverbs 13:10 Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.

We can misapply faith into thinking that if I have enough, I won't get sick—the poison from the snake bite won't hurt me or the coronavirus won't affect me.

So where most of know not to lick doorknobs, we still don't always know or understand how to handle every situation we face. We can choose to simply trust God and blindly walk through life as if nothing bad could happen to us, or we trust God and the brain He gave. In that case, we make decisions based on information from what we know to be true in the Bible but also what we know from our experiences and the knowledge we've gained as we've grown. When we don't have the knowledge we need, we seek and advice, use wisdom to assess and apply that information. We can come to the conclusion that the medical experts know more than me and that not only shouldn't I lick a doorknob, but I should really wash my hands after I touch it, especially when out in public when the flu or other illnesses are spreading like the one we're currently facing.

Faith and trust in God should give us peace instead of fearing what's yet to come but wisdom is needed to navigate what happens on our path to wherever God is taking us. #CowboysofTheCross #InThisTogether