Arriving in any foreign country is always disconcerting. Not knowing your way around, you have to depend totally on locals to know what to do and how to do it.

When we landed in Nassau, Bahamas, we soon discovered that claiming our luggage was one of those things. There were so many conveyor belts, and none of them were labelled! Which one would bring our luggage?

Fifteen minutes later, we had half of our bags, and they came off of two different conveyer belts… An hour later, we finally had them all… Now we were faced with another problem: How to get to our hotel?

There was no shortage of taxi drivers at the terminal, and we quickly decided this would be the best way to get into town. But which one to take? Would some charge us more than others? Do all of them know their way around? All of such choices tend to be confusing, leaving you feeling, literally, like a robot with dead batteries: “Can someone give me some Energizers please?”

We accepted the help of the first cab driver to approach us, and it didn’t take him more than a moment to load our myriad of bags. “Had he known we had so many,” I thought, “maybe he would have approached someone else!” But the quantity of luggage didn’t seem to deter him. Of course, what we didn’t realize at the time was that there was an additional charge for each bag…

We were soon on our way, and we could only hope we were heading in the direction of our hotel. The driver turned out to be very friendly. As he shared his knowledge of the local culture, we became more and more fascinated. Then we discovered that he was often hired out at times to be a body guard. I guess we couldn’t have been better protected!

Then we started to ask about the local food, as we wanted to know all about the exotic island fruits and vegetables. The driver soon learned that we were planning on buying most of our food from grocery stores, rather than eating at restaurants, and he turned his taxi around and drove us straight to the closest supermarket. “It’s too far to walk with all of that food!” He said.

Once out of our taxi, we were faced with another dilemma: Should we leave all of our luggage in the cab while shopping? What if he decided to go for a ride, never to be seen again?

Then it occurred to me that every day we are faced with trust issues. Can I trust John? And what about Joe or Georgette? The problem is that many of us don’t even trust ourselves! We have learned by experience that we are not always trustworthy. Take, for example, the time you took photocopy paper home from work. And what about when you yelled at your son or your brother? And then there was that unfounded tax break you claimed on your tax return. What about the time you inadvertently left the store with unpaid merchandise? Did you return it? Some of these questions may or may not apply to you, but in all honesty, can you trust yourself 100% of the time?

The problem is that if we are not always trustworthy, who else can we trust? And this leads to another question: Are we portraying our lack of trust in ourselves on God Himself? Is this why, possibly, so many of us have an issue with trusting God 100% of the time? Is this why we always try to resolve our own problems? Is this why we are facing so many insurmountable dilemmas? Is our lack of trust, possibly, the source of our unhealthy lifestyle?

One fact is clear: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” (John 14:1-2 NIV); and “Those who hope in me will not be disappointed!” (Isa 49:23 NIV)

We left our goods in the taxi, and when we returned, we were greeted with a huge smile… There were more bags to be charged for!

The bill turned out to be shocking, and we resolved to reserve any future taxi time for our return to the airport. We did learn that our taxi driver was reliable, however, and we did not regret having trusted him. In fact, the day we were to leave, he arrived at our hotel fifteen minutes early and waited patiently in the lobby for us – all at 5:00 in the morning!

Perhaps he remembered all of our bags?

We still have his card, by the way, and we know who to call the next time we find ourselves in this tropical paradise!

Who will you trust?

Rob Chaffart

(To access the entire “Control Freaks’ Senility” devotional series, please click here.)