Thoughts on Trust...

I've been thinking a lot about trust. Actually, what stimulates my cogitation has more to do with my history of a lack of trust. Like most humans, I do a pretty good job of covering up the fact that I don't trust people. I smile just like others do, nodding my head as though I am completely dedicated to allowing some stranger to freely control my life. But deep inside (and maybe not so deep at that), there is no way that I am going to trust that person.

Trust is weird. Is there anyone who can trust someone without developing a relationship with that person? The truth is (at least from my perspective), the only way that you can build trust is by trusting. At some point, no matter how connected you are to that person, you are going to have to trust him before you can build a good foundation of trust. In other words (to make it even more confusing), if you want it you've got to have it before you can get it! Now you see why I say that trust is weird?

I see the effects of a lack of trust at work nearly every day. People are giving their lip service - their support or collaboration, if you will - to those people who are their closest co-workers. To their faces they are their best friends. Yet deep inside they are doing all they can to protect their turf and save their jobs, just in case someone should try to undermine their efforts. It's a wonder that any work can get done!

Sometimes I laugh (completely to myself, 'cause I also have to protect my job) when I see businesses having retreats to build trust within their leadership. They make executives do things like the "Trust Fall," or climb up poles and across cables while co-workers hold on to ropes to make sure that they don't fall and get hurt, all the while thinking that they are facilitating trust between those people. But all that is really happening is that the person holding the rope or catching the falling co-worker is thinking, "I can't let this person get hurt, 'cause I will be the one that appears to be incompetent or weak, and we all know what happens at work to those who look weak!"

Then I wonder about trust in the spiritual sense. Is it important? No, not just important - it is critical for our salvation. Proverbs 3:5 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." It's not a halfway proposition - it's an all-or-nothing stance that we are expected to take.

So how do we do it? How do we take cynical, skeptical human beings and turn them around so that they are willing to give over their futures completely to a God who demands nothing less? How do we transform their natures to the place where they will allow God to dictate which paths they should travel?

It can't happen. There is nothing that we can do. We have to learn to rely on a Power that is totally outside of our control. We have to be reborn. We have to be transformed. We have to be new creatures - new creations.

It doesn't happen overnight. And speaking from experience, there will be times when we wrestle control out of His hands and destroy what progress He is making with us. But even during those times He can use our experiences to build a stronger foundation of trust - something that future tough times cannot shake.

And I'm good with that!

God bless you abundantly!