I learned this all-important lesson on my last day of high school. Why is it that I forget so often?

The lesson I learned? That when I trust in Jesus, I will have no problems…

If you’ve been reading my posts over the years, you will already know that I am incredibly shy; and as a teen, my shyness kept me from even looking at girls! So the fact that this particular lesson was drilled into my head by a girl, and a non-Christian at that, makes it all the more memorable…

The story went like this: As I exited the school building, I was filled with mixed emotions. I was excited to have achieved this milestone in my life, and I was elated that I had done well in high school; but I was also filled with dread for what would happen the following year. Had I made the right decision to become a pastor? Was the school I had chosen the right one? Did I have the right advisor there? I had never left home before. How would I survive being over 800 km from my parents? And perhaps the biggest worry: As shy as I was, would I be accepted? Would I make friends? Would I do as well as I had done in high school?

And the list of self-doubts went on and on. In fact, I was so engrossed in my swirling emotions that I didn’t see her at first; but she saw me. In fact, she was waiting right outside the door for me, and it didn’t matter to her that my head was in the clouds or that I was too shy to even look at a girl. No, nothing deterred her from coming after me: “Robby!”

I stopped and looked up, and I saw the speaker was a girl. As the familiar heat began to rise up my neck and onto my face, I turned to run.

Even this didn’t stop her. She reached out and grabbed my arm.

What? No girl had ever done that before! What on earth did she want with… ME???

“Your dad is Jimmy, right? Jimmy Chaffart?”

I gulped and nodded. What on Earth did she want to talk to me about my dad for?

I couldn’t have been more surprised by her next words: “My mom used to go out with your dad! She lived him. She liked him a lot! And he liked her!”

Now I had never bothered to ask my dad about any relationship he had been in before he met my mom. Of course, I knew he must have had some other girlfriends, for he did have a reputation in town, but why would this girl be telling me this???

Then the bomb dropped: “And I like you!”

Somehow her words didn’t have the normal effect on me. In fact, seeing as I was just thinking about whether or not I would be able to find friends at the college I planned to attend, it was kind of nice to hear that she liked me. Of course, I didn’t want to be in a relationship with her, but to my teenage brain, it was kind of nice, nonetheless.

We chatted for about 5 minutes, and then we both went our separate ways. I would never see this girl again, but it didn’t matter. In the weakest moments of my self-doubt, I realized that God sent someone to encourage me. If this total stranger liked me here in Belgium, then I would also be able to find friends where I would be going.

That’s the first time I learned the all-important lesson: When I trust in Jesus, I have no problems!

In Jesus’ own words: “But Jesus overheard their report and said to the synagogue leader, ‘Don’t be afraid; just keep trusting.'” (Mark 5:36 CEB) How true those words were for me, because I did go on to that college, and I made a lot of wonderful, life-long friends. I was accepted, despite my shyness. And God sent me the encouragement I needed at just the right time, right there at the exit of my high school, right from the mouth of a dreaded girl, on that last day of school.

And if God was able to that, then, why not now as well? After all, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever!” (Hebrews 13:8 CEB)

In His love,
Rob Chaffart