Trust and Move - The Wesleyan Church

I am sending him—who is my very heart—back to you. (Philem. 12)

Expanded Passage: Philemon 12-14

December marked the fifteen-year anniversary of surviving a T-bone collision with a speeding semitruck on the expressway. After years of healing from various injuries, including traumatic brain injury (TBI), the time had come to return to work. I was a new hospice chaplain with a low caseload. I was soon called upon to cover for my chaplain husband, Jim, at his branch while he was away on assignment.

Due to the TBI, I was terrified I couldn’t perform well. The hardest patients were new ones and typically there might be one or two per month. Within four days of Jim’s departure, there were six new patients. This was not my plan! But it was God’s plan. My belief was that I couldn’t handle this circumstance. But I did, and I did it well. My uncertainty was to be expected, but my anxiety was unnecessary. In the end, I became better skilled and was grateful for the experience.

Onesimus had to trust God. When God orchestrates plans, we need only cooperate. This doesn’t mean it will be easy or painless. In fact, those plans may even involve six new patients! But God’s plans will be achievable, and we will thrive as a result. We can never allow anxiety to control our decisions. Worry is to the flesh what prayer is to the spirit. We must trust God and move forward into action.

Do not allow worry to dictate your future.

C. Renee Miller is the founder of CRM Spiritual Care Services and is passionate about assisting believers to unleash and electrify their relationship with Christ.