Whom can you trust?

If you grew up in a reasonably happy home, where parents met your needs for food, clothing, shelter, and closeness, then you have a mostly favorable understanding of trust. Babies soon learn about trust and about comfort. Children learn about trust through social interactions. In life, both employment and marriage arrangements are based on trust. It is possible to have either without trust, but there will not be any peace in either without trust. Neither will be fully productive without trust.

Trust involves an element of not knowing, but in early things, the proof is close at hand. We trust a parent to come home from work. We trust a parent to prepare food for supper. At the end of the day, both of those usually are proven. Waiting is often a part of trust. We wait for another to complete a task, the result of which will benefit us either personally or in a shared relationship. Usually, we trust another for something good.

In faith terms, the message of the gospel is that a very loving creator made us, but we have turned from an essential relationship, and we are not even aware of what we have lost. We are designed to worship our Creator, but have substituted other lesser things as objects of worship. As a result, we are constantly unfulfilled.

We are invited to trust a message from the Creator that we are disconnected and lost. This is similar to a child waiting for a parent to for fulfill a word, except that the ultimate fulfillment from the word of God is that it takes a lifetime of waiting and trusting before ultimate fulfillment. It is different from a child waiting for a parent in that the child can see and touch the parent. Trust in God requires looking beyond the physical. Fortunately, believers receive encouragement to continue along the way in the person of the Holy Spirit, who brings the gift of assurance.

God has invited trust, but unlike a human parent, we do not relate in a physical sense. We relate in a spiritual sense. We are not likely to see God in any typical human form. The one who gives the clearest image of what God is like is God’s agent of redemption, God’s son, Christ Jesus. In his life, he talked as God talks, taught as God teaches, and behaved as God behaves. In Jesus, we begin to see what God is like. In his death, we see how much God truly cares that human creation will discover the truth. In his resurrection, we see that God has the power to do whatever God says.

Most believers agree that this is simple, but not easy. We may recognize one moment that trust begins, but to grow, trust is practiced daily as long as we live. For peace, for life, it is worth learning to trust. If you are not sure, then look deeper. You will find it.