I’ve thought so much about Colorado since we got home. There’s just something about being out there in all that wild, beautiful open space where I feel like God gets my attention.
And once again, I kept coming back to these two words He has had on my heart… trust and understanding.
And little by little, I think He’s making it clearer what those two words really mean for me, learning to trust even when I don’t understand.
And that’s exactly what I got to see and experience in Colorado.
Being out there in all that wildness, you really do have to trust without knowing what’s coming next. You don’t know what’s around the next bend, what the weather might bring, what animal might cross your path, or what incredible view might be waiting for you at the top.
You just go.
You keep walking, you keep exploring, and you trust… and somewhere along the way you realize that not knowing is part of the adventure. Because some of the most beautiful things God has waiting for us are the things we never could have seen from where we started.
And we had so many of those moments.
An unbelievable view, a moose, a bear, a fox, my precious little chipmunks ❤️, a rainbow after a storm, or just sitting on top of a mountain eating lunch with people I love.
We didn’t know any of those things were waiting for us.
We just kept going.
And maybe those little surprises are some of God’s sweetest rewards for trusting without having to understand everything first.
The rivers really brought that home for me too.
The water was so low. I didn’t realize parts of Colorado had been going through a drought, but you could see it in the rivers and streams and even in the land and wildlife around them.
As I looked at those rivers, I realized something…
The water was low, but the banks were still there.
And those banks didn’t just show me what was missing.
They showed me what was possible.
You could see the potential capacity of the river — how high the water could rise, how full it could become, how wild and beautiful it could flow again.
Even in the drought, the banks were still there showing what the river was capable of holding.
And to me, that was possibility and hope.
As we were leaving Colorado, one of my favorite NEEDTOBREATHE songs, Banks, came on. I’ve heard it so many times, but this time I heard it completely differently.
There’s a line I love…
“I’ll be the banks for your river.”
And it just hit me…
God, that’s You.
You hold me close, but You don’t hold me back.
You let me experience those full-to-the-brim moments of life. The wild ones. The beautiful ones. The moments where life is flowing so fully you almost can’t take it all in.
But life isn’t always full to the brim.
There are droughts too.
There are seasons of waiting and pruning. Seasons when things get low and I don’t understand why. Seasons when I can’t see what God could possibly be doing.
I’ll probably never understand all of it.
But Colorado gave me this picture I don’t think I’ll forget…
Just because the water was low didn’t mean the Banks had left.
He was still there.
God is just as present when life feels low and empty as He is when it feels wild and full to the brim.
And maybe when the water is low, those Banks are also there to remind us of the capacity of the river — of what can be full again.
That’s hope.
And that brings me right back to those two words…
Trust and understanding.
I’m realizing I don’t always get both.
Sometimes I just get to trust.
Trust enough to keep walking when I can’t see around the bend.
Trust enough to believe there can be purpose in the pruning and the drought.
Trust enough to enjoy every little gift He puts along the way.
And trust enough to look at a river that’s almost empty and not just see what’s missing… but see the possibility of what it was created to hold.
There are seasons when life feels full and flowing, and seasons of drought and pruning. I may not always understand why I’m in one or where He’s taking me next, but I’m learning that faith is trusting Him anyway.
Trusting that He sees what I can’t see. That He is working even when I can’t see the evidence of it. And that not one season is wasted in His hands.
I don’t have to understand the way He’s leading me…
I just have to know the One leading me.
And I know He is good.
The water will rise and fall. The seasons will change. There will be bends in the river I can’t see around.
But the Banks don’t move.
And neither does He. ❤️
Trust without understanding
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