758) Growing up in church and attending Christian schools and college, I have heard my share of Christian platitudes. In all fairness, I don’t think many of the people I heard saying them meant anything judgmental or dismissive and yet these types of comments have left their mark on my soul.

One such platitude has been “Just trust God.” Because there is validity to this admonition, I have struggled so much in what I view as a lack of faith. My self-judgment has been working in overtime and I see this struggle mirrored in David’s life in the Psalms.

For example, in Psalm 15 and 17, David continually cries out to God, struggling with trusting Him and yet, in Psalm 16: 9-11, we see David say that in spite of how he feels, his heart is glad and he rejoices and then, the line that caught my eye: my body also will rest secure.

Because of my struggles this past year over so many things, my body has had little rest and felt little security. This makes me wonder what David’s “secret” is because I so desperately want to feel rest within this security. Someone could say, “Just trust God” to me but, honestly, that’s not helpful; it actually seems dismissive.

So, what is David’s formula for having secured rest? I’m not sure but could it be that having a continual honest dialogue with God (we might refer to this as venting) has helped bring David to where he was at rest? It seems so because I read of David’s consistently troubled words and also his words of praise for God.

Perhaps, “Just trust God” might be better served by saying, “Tell everything to God.” This is what I read David doing continually in the Psalms.