Trusting God Does Not Mean Jumping in the Canal

I was out walking recently and thinking about what it actually means to trust God before making a decision, and the difference between trusting and wishful thinking. My husband made a simple comment that stayed with me. He said that if you cannot swim and you decide to jump into a canal because you trust God, you are probably going to drown. It made me laugh, but it also made the point perfectly.

There can be a strange idea in spiritual circles that trust means leaping without considering anything practical. You do not have the money, but you buy something anyway because “God will provide.” You quit the job without a plan because you are trusting. You commit to something you cannot realistically afford and assume that somehow the money will show up. You ignore what is right in front of you because looking at the facts feels too much like fear. But is that actually trust, or have we already made the decision and then asked God to support it?

That is an important distinction. Trusting God does not mean deciding what you want to do and then expecting God to make the details work out. That can sound spiritual, but it may actually be another form of control. I have chosen the outcome, the timing, and the form, and now I want God to provide whatever is necessary to make my plan happen. That is not really surrender. Surrender sounds more like, “I think this is what I want, but I am willing to be shown another way.”

If I am standing on one side of the canal and want to get to the other side, trusting God does not necessarily mean jumping into the water. It might mean asking, “How am I meant to get across?” There may be a bridge I have not noticed. There may be a boat. There may be another route. Someone may come along who can help. Or perhaps the answer is simply, “Not yet.” The difficulty is that we do not always like “not yet,” and we especially do not like “no.”

We say we want guidance, but sometimes what we really want is confirmation. We want God to agree with the decision we have already made. A Course in Miracles continually brings us back to the mind and to the teacher we are choosing. The question is not whether we make practical decisions in the world. Of course we do. We pay bills, make appointments, look at our bank account, plan, ask questions, and gather information. None of that is inherently fearful or unspiritual. The deeper question is what is driving the decision.

Am I planning because I am trying to control every possible outcome, or am I looking honestly at what is in front of me so I can make a clear decision? Am I acting because I feel peaceful about the next step, or because I cannot tolerate the situation I am currently in and desperately want something to change? Am I asking for guidance, or am I asking for a guarantee?

This is where the idea of magic in ACIM becomes useful. Magic is the belief that something outside of us can solve the problem we believe we have inside. Money can become magic. A relationship can become magic. A new job, a house, a move, or even a spiritual opportunity can become magic. We begin to believe that if we can just get the thing, then we will feel safe, supported, valuable, free, or at peace.

But what if the guidance is not to get the thing? What if the guidance is to wait, spend less, stay where you are a little longer, make a smaller move, ask for help, or change direction completely? That is where trust becomes more challenging, because now we are no longer asking God to support our plan. We are asking to be shown what the plan actually is.

There is also a tendency to confuse practical information with fear. Someone looks at their finances and sees that something is not affordable, and the spiritual mind immediately says, “Do not let fear stop you.” But perhaps that is not fear. Perhaps that is simply information. There is nothing spiritual about ignoring information because we do not like what it is telling us.

Looking at your finances does not mean you lack faith. Reading a contract does not mean you lack faith. Asking whether something is sustainable does not mean you lack faith. Thinking through the consequences of a decision does not mean you lack faith. Responsibility and trust are not opposites. In fact, responsibility may be part of the guidance.

Sometimes we want a miracle to mean that the external problem disappears. The money arrives, the opportunity appears, the situation changes, or the way suddenly becomes easy. But the miracle in ACIM is a correction in perception. The shift may be in the way I am seeing the situation rather than in the situation itself. Instead of asking, “How can I make this happen?” perhaps the better question is, “How should I see this?” Instead of saying, “God will provide,” perhaps I ask, “What is being provided right now that I am not noticing?”

Maybe the answer is already there, but it is not the answer I wanted. Maybe the bridge is fifty metres away, and I am standing at the edge of the canal waiting for God to part the water. That is often how we miss guidance. We are looking for a dramatic answer when something quieter is already available.

Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is wait, say no, admit that you cannot afford something right now, make a different plan, ask for help, or simply stop forcing. None of those things mean you have failed to trust. Trust is not proving your faith by taking unnecessary risks. It is not ignoring reality and hoping God will fix it later. It is being willing to be guided before you decide.

Before making a big decision, it may help to ask whether you have already decided what you want the answer to be. Are you ignoring practical information because it conflicts with what you want? Would you be willing to hear “not yet” or “no”? Would you be willing to take a different route? Are you actually asking for guidance, or are you asking for the outcome you have already chosen?

Perhaps the prayer becomes very simple: Show me the next step. Not the whole plan, not the guarantee, and not the outcome. Just the next step. You may discover that trusting God does not require you to jump into the canal at all. The bridge may already be there.