Trusting What I've Received

God has provided so much. We prayed for housing; I am now sitting in an apartment a week before school starts. We prayed for jobs; I got a TA position the day before I had to take a loan and Mike got a job this week. We are still praying for things such as good community, an advisor for my research, and a smooth transition, but I can sense God providing these things already.

So now, I must trust. As Brennsn Manning's spiritual director told him, I too must "trust what I have received." Trust has been a hard journey for me throughout my life, but God has never stopped providing or guiding me. 

As I embark on this new phase of life, I must trust that God has brought me here. He wants me here. He has provided for me and guided me thus far. All the things we have been asking for to have confirmation, he has confirmed. So I must move forward with trust. 

Brennan Manning writes, "There are as few who respond to his [God's] goodness by a trust at once filial and unshaken. And so it is that he welcomes with a love of predilection those souls, all too few in number, who in adversity as in joy, in tribulation and consolation, unfalteringly trust in God’s paternal love."

This is what I long for... To unfalteringly trust God in adversity and in joy, in tribulation and consolation. I will have trials and celebrations throughout my PhD program and in all of them, I will trust that God has brought me here and he is guiding me. I will trust what I have received. 

(View from the porch of our new apartment)