It is easy to trust, be happy, in good spirits and motivated to live life when things are going well. But what happens when there is a bump in the road. What happens when someone owes you money and it does not come. I actually have this going on in my life at this moment. Someone owes me personally thousands of dollars, and I have reminded them nicely by message a few times over the past year that the money is due, not only to me but to those I commissioned for the job. I must tell you it takes every bit of Bitachon and power that I have to believe that this person is not holding the money back from me but it is H'shem, If I was meant to get this money it would come to me whether he pays me or does not. Of course I must do the Mitzvah of "Shmor Et Nafshosechem" and will not do business with him again. My job is not to worry about him or spend any time at ALL thinking about him or the money. If I earned it it will come, if I am not deserving or it is better for me not to have it I wont. As Rabbenu Bachya teaches us " If he trust in GD, he will find peace of mind and tranquility of soul, for his allotted portion will not be transferred to another, nor will it come earlier or later than the appointed time." pg 409/ 411 Trust in H'shem is not tested when things are going how we want. It is tested when they are not.
Once, on a Motzoei Shabbos, the chasidim were sitting in the bais medrash of the Ruzhiner Rebbe zy”a for Melave Malka. Suddenly, the Rebbe opened the door of his room next to the bais medrash, stood at the entrance, and said, “The Baal Shem Tov was not a deity, and the zaida, the Magid, was not just an ordinary wagon driver. And once, when the holy Baal Shem Tov prayed, his talis fringe fell out of his gartel and dragged on the floor. The Magid approached, picked it up, and put it back in the gartel, but he was trembled with such tremendous fear that he fainted and his life was in danger. They were compelled to rouse the Baal Shem Tov from his deep dveikus in order to calm him.” He then added, “I told you that the Baal Shem Tov was not a deity and my zaida, the Magid, was no wagon driver. Still and all, when he touched the Besht’s garment, he fainted from fear. The entire world is Hashem’s garment. How much fear must we feel to touch this world!” May the memory of the...