Can I be trusted?

A sign taped to the wall of the man’s home was written in big, hand scrawled letters.  

“Trust no one ever!” 
There had to be a story behind it. I did not get the sense it was posted in jest. I knew he had a past that included broken relationships and that he was estranged from his extended family.  Whatever had happened, the result was a tragic. 

Who would want to live in a world where everyone was perceived as a threat, where suspicion tinged every interaction with other people?  That sounds exhausting to me!

Who do you trust completely? We know we cannot trust everyone. That would be naïve and yet I hope there are some who have proven trustworthy and true. A Frontline (PBS) documentary about the Vatican (broadcast 2/25/2014) discussed the broken trust of people who were victims of corrupt priests and a structure of power that refused to be accountable. Watching a woman now in mid-life relive her abuse at the hands of a priest was heart-wrenching. Hearing a man, once a priest of promise who was called to Rome, describe how he lost his ability to trust many in high church office, was painful to say the least. As I processed that program when I went to bed, I lay in the dark talking to my Heavenly Father, asking the Spirit to help me to be a friend, pastor, and father worthy of trust.

Trust. What creates it?

Above all, a trusted person must have integrity. Does your ‘inside’ match your ‘outside?’ Does your private life align with your public profession? Jesus’ scathing words addressed to the Pharisees are a lesson for us all.“Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs-beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy.”  (Matthew 23:27-28)

Then, too, Jesus says, trust emerges from a life that handles the details faithfully. “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?" (Luke 16:10-11, NIV)  If we neglect the stuff of life we think is inconsequential, we will also fail in the major commitments.

And He teaches us to keep our words simple and direct. "Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one." (Matthew 5:37, NIV)  In our time of extended contracts, 100 page mortgages, and pre-nuptial agreements that command seems so out of reach.

I realize that trust is my choice, as well.  When we are hurt by the faithlessness of another, choosing to trust others again can be difficult. Like the man whose story opened this thought, we may decide that we will never trust.  

The wisdom of God asks us to forgive, to grow, and to secure ourselves in His love. And He says that true love "always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." (1 Corinthians 13:7, NIV)   May the Lord teach us to be trustworthy and surround us with those we can trust. In this we are made rich.

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I Would Be True

I would be true,

For there are those who trust me.

I would be pure,

For there are those who care.

I would be strong,

For there is much to suffer.

I would be brave,

For there is much to dare.

I would be friend of all,

The foe, the friendless.

I would be giving,

And forget the gift.

I would be humble,

For I know my weakness.

I would look up and laugh,

And love and lift.

Howard Arnold Walter

Public Domain