Wayne Gordon

Coach Gordon and John Perkins shared a Bible Study with us each morning of the CCDA conference in LA.  One morning, Coach shared Proverbs 3:5-6, a familiar verse to many:  

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.

He then went on to talk about a friend, Darryl Saffold, who, 15 years ago, came to Hope House in Lawndale as an addict.  After getting clean, he married, he went to seminary and got his masters of divinity, he went back to get a doctorate in Christian Community Development and his DMin.  He was executive pastor at Lawndale, the chairman of the Board for their community development corporation, and Coach Gordon was sensing and planning that Darryl was God's succession plan for Lawndale's leadership as Coach prepares to pass the baton and retire.  

Then, Darryl died at age 49 of a massive heart attack in June.

Coach shared about going to Darryl and Julie's house. Coach got there as the paramedics stopped working on Darryl, and he prayed and prayed for God to revive Darryl's life. Darryl did not come back to life on this side.  

What do you do when you are trusting God, you believe He's directing your path in a certain direction, and then it doesn't go that way?

This was Gordon's question to us that morning. Where is our trust when it doesn't go the way we were so sure it was supposed to go? Can we still trust God?  

The truth in these hard and confusing circumstances is that God is still God.  And if we're honest, we don't really know what we're doing or what is going to happen.  But can we walk by faith and not by sight? Can we still put our trust in a sovereign and good God?  

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and HE will make straight your paths. 
Proverbs 3:5-6

Christ the sure foundation.  He, through faith, is our only certain future.