Time was when people highly valued the fact that people saw them as someone who could be trusted. It was a virtue that was bred into the folks who lived where I was born and lived the formative years of my life. In deep South Georgia, a handshake was all that was needed to seal a business deal because the men on both sides of the transaction had something for each other that is vanishing in our society today: trust. Trust is belief in and reliance upon someone or something. Trust implies that one has faith in another and that they believe in them and have confidence that they will complete the agreed upon transaction. It was the bedrock of the society in those days and it should be today as well.
One of the things that is basically wrong with our modern society is that hardly anyone values trust. The lack of that virtue has produced a nation of cynical people who have no faith in anyone or anything very much. They live always being suspect of everything that is going on around them. They also find it strange that people used to shake hands and seal a deal with nothing other than that. One had better not be so foolish in today’s world they think.
Trust is defined by Webster as: Assured reliance on the character, ability, strength or truth of someone or something. God places ultimate on trust. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto thine own understanding (Prov. 3:5). To have trust in someone, one must also have faith in them. True trust is born out of one’s faith in someone or something. The two things are inseparable. God also places ultimate value upon faith…believing one and having trust in them and what they have said and promised. He said: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6). So, faith in and trust in someone are very important, in fact, where God is involved it is essential.
Everyone has probably had a time when someone they trusted, believed and relied upon disappointed them by failing at the trust and faith they had placed in that person. It is very disappointing and in fact, somewhat devastating. It forms an empty place in the center of one’s heart to find out that a person who was trusted and in whom they had confidence had said something or taken a stance which was opposite to what they had said and led you to believe. It leaves one as if they have been abandoned and betrayed. It takes a long time to learn how to live with such disappointment and ultimately to forgive them. In our society of today trust is broken often and it leaves people with the tendency to disbelieve and to become cynical at anything they are told by someone. It is sad that we have devolved into such a situation in our country. Politics have contributed to much of our situation. We have been ultimately disappointed by the discovery over the past few years as to just how corrupt Washington is. That corruption existed in our nation’s capitol was understood but in the past few years we have discovered just how corrupt it really is. We have become accustomed to being lied to by those we should be able to trust. It seems that no one is trustworthy any longer. Lying has become such a way of life in Washington until our people are cynical about any statement that is made. Permit me to pose this statement: In every universe of ideas, there is truth and there is a lie. I would call it a plus (+) and a negative (-). Something is either true or it is a lie; a plus or a negative. It has to be one or the other. Now, I ask this question: What is the truth in our nation’s capitol and what is a lie? I think I have figured it our from simply watching the way things happen. The truth in Washington is a lie that worked for you and accomplished what you wanted it to do. A lie in the capitol is a lie that did not work for you and which got you into trouble. Both are lies but one worked for you and one did not. It is soon pushed under the rug and hopefully forgotten while the lie that worked for you is quickly transformed into a law and becomes part of our stance as a country. Abortion is a good example of this. Everything the public was told about abortion in the beginning of the discussion a number of years ago was a lie passed along by the liberals and the news media. Now, it is protected by law. The lie became a legal practice in America. Their “truth” which was a lie worked for them and now plagues our country.
We, as a people in this modern society have every reason to be cynical because those in which we have placed our trust have betrayed us continuously and taught us not to place trust in anyone. For something that God places so much value upon, the world has seen to it that it is abandoned almost completely. Trust is wounded and fading fast.
Not only is trust something that we should value, it is also something that binds together the people in society. It is and essential part of the “glue” that holds things together and helps produce a society that produces truth, harmony, peace and prosperity. It is an essential part of the makeup of a Christian social and religious order. Christianity, trust and faith go hand in hand and produce a world in which people find it a pleasure to live. Any social order without trust will degenerate into a group of people who look after themselves only and who tend not to believe anyone or anything. This thing called trust is necessary for ordered life. It is essential for personal emotional health for without it we feel isolated from others who otherwise might help us maintain a healthy social order in our personal lives.
Whatever happened to the trust that we knew only a few decades ago? Why has it faded? I think it is because we have become a secular society instead of one founded upon the Judeo-Christian principles found in the Bible. The more secular we have become, the less we believe in God. The less we believe in God, the more we believe in ourselves. The more we are self-oriented and believe in ourselves, the more we seek what WE want. The more we seek what WE want, the more we trust only in ourselves and the less focus we have on God. Without Him in our lives we are easy victims of the secular mindset which trust no one and is cynical to the core about everything.
I think my point is made. Trust binds us together and without it, a society will fall into the ever increasing pit of self reliance and when we do that God is relegated to the periphery of our minds. Without Him all is lost and that is about where we are at this point. So again, I ask the question: Whatever Happened to Trust?
