December 17, 2007
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Trust
I've heard of parents playing the game with their kids where they jump off of some piece of furniture and the parents (usually dad) catches them. Kids love this type of thing. It's really a game about trust. Can they trust you enough to catch them?
Last night I came home to find Mali on top of the refrigerator. She had to jump to the counter and then to the top of the refrigerator. (She's not allowed on the counter, but that doesn't stop her!) She was clearly glad to see me but seemed bewildered on how to get down. She was facing away from the way she had come up. As I took my boots off, she swayed back and forth trying to figure it out. I was about to help her out when she LAUNCHED herself onto my shoulder/coat and purred happily. I guess kittens play the trust game too!
I know one person whose father played the trust game with him. They did it about 10 times. On the 11th time, his father held out his arms, Larry jumped, and his father let his arms -- and his son -- fall. He stood over the crying boy and said, "That's to teach you never to trust anyone."
Lesson learned. Larry struggled with trust.
Do you struggle with trust? I do! I want to be like Mali and those children whose father's always catch them! But, like Larry, I have learned that people can't always be trusted and I need to be cautious.
I have a choice to make. I need to step out in faith. While I can't always trust everyone, I can trust God all the time. He will catch me even if people don't! The trick is figuring out how to apply that trust in God in practical ways. It involves risk. I need to still choose to risk with people.
What does trust look like for you?
Comments (2)
It's another good question. Trust involves calculated risk. Yesterday, I was thinking about a former very close friend -- actually my best man -- years ago, we had a very tough conversation where he told me over the phone all the things he and his wife didn't like about my wife and I. As you can imagine, it pretty much killed our relationship. It's not that I didn't forgive him. In fact, I for a few years following that phone call, I stopped by to see them from time to time. I prayed for blessing for them. But I never trusted him again.
Trust has to be earned. Trusting God is hard only because of our limited perception. What might look to us like He has let us down is just the nearsightedness of our vision. He is always faithful; it's just that his care for us comes in packages that are not always recognizable as good.
The story about "Larry" literally makes my stomach hurt. That's horrible.
To me, trust is about the freedom to be myself with another person.
Twinkling for Jesus,
Michelle
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