Dear Saints

Who do you trust? Is your trust easy to gain? Or does it take time for someone to earn your trust? We all tend to trust differently. Some of us are trusting of a wide circle of friends and family; others have a smaller, tightknit circle. Some of us take people at their word; others need more verification. Some of us easily trust institutions and authority figures; others have a natural disinclination to do so. Trust can be something we struggle with in our relationships, especially when that trust has been broken in the past. But when we have a long-established pattern of mutual trust with someone, it can be the safest feeling in the world.

 

Knowing we have people, institutions, and our God to trust creates a stable foundation on which to build our lives. Whether our “circle of trust” is large or small, just knowing it’s there is key. Some of us grant our trust more easily than others, but every trusting relationship is built on some evidence that we are safe to proceed. With friends and family, that evidence can be found in the keeping of confidentiality, showing up when you say you will, or sharing freely what you have with each other. With institutions or authority, the proof needed for trust can be evidenced through consistency, transparency and follow-through. With God, the evidence comes not only from our own experience, but the witness of others.

 

When we first learn to trust God, we may have very little personal experience to go on. However, because we trust the witness of others – people who show love to us – the first steps of our journey may be taken solely on faith. Deepening our trust relationship with God is a journey of remembering. We remember the stories when God showed faithfulness to God’s people. We remember the stories our loved ones or mentors shared from their own lives. And then we can begin to remember the ways God has shown up for us. We remember the places God has shown grace, the ways God’s hand has guided us, the people God has placed in our path, and the comfort God’s spirit has provided.

 

Psalm 32 calls God “my hiding place,” and I think that speaks to that feeling of safety that comes when we trust. Although it can be scary, truly leaning into the promises of God can help us see the ways we are surrounded by God’s protection. Whether we need shelter from exposure, fear, illness, doubt, or enemies (physical or spiritual), God is our rock. As we sink deeper and deeper into the trust relationship with him, we learn just how firm a foundation God’s shelter can be. And the more firm we feel on that foundation, the more sheltered we understand ourselves to be, the more we can safely flourish and become who God made us to be.

 

+ Pastor Ginger +