Your best friend? Mother, father, sister, brother? Your spouse? Who do you have in your life that you can count on when it really counts? Who do you trust?
This question matters. It matters because it reveals something about ourselves, and the people around us.
What is trust?
By definition, trust is the reliance on the strength, ability, integrity, surety, etc of a person or thing (Dictionary.com). Trust in a person means believing that person is reliable, accountable, responsible. They are there for you. And if you really trust them, they are there for you no matter what.
Trust comes about through a combination of experience, conversation, relationship, and plain-old gut feelings. I've met some people whom I trusted almost immediately, and others I wouldn't trust to take out the trash even after knowing them for years. A fickle thing, this idea of trust. As the saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Trust is perishable, even fragile. I've trusted, and been burnt. I've also not trusted, and suffered loss for it. Trust is subjective, personal.
Trust is hard.
The bigger the issue, the harder it is to trust. There are certain things in my life that I will only entrust to my closest circle of family and friends. The well being of my children, the keys to my home, my financial information, and so on. Even within that circle, there are only 3-4 with whom I share my daily fears, struggles, temptations. Those few have earned my trust, but it didn't come easily.
To trust we have to be vulnerable. We have to be willing to get hurt, or to suffer loss. That is not easy, nor natural. Our tendency, or at least mine, and the message of the world is that we are to be self-reliant and independent. The world says we don't need anybody, and even if we did, there isn't anybody we can trust. But I'm telling you, that just isn't true.
Trust is necessary.
We simply cannot walk through this life alone. Even Jesus, in whom we can confidently place our entire trust, had a close circle of friends around Him, and from among those He found three with whom He entrusted more than the rest. If you are not familiar with who they are, read Matthew 17:1-2, as well as Matthew 26:36-37. Those are the men Jesus wanted by His side when times were tough.
Jesus trusted God, His Father, entirely and completely. He leaned on God for all things. Even then, he desired the close companionship of men He could trust. And yes, I know--they failed Him, at least in the short term. But you know what? They came back. They did what He trusted them to do. His trust was not misplaced. He trusted them to carry on His work when He had left this world, and they did.
You have to trust.
Some burdens are simply too heavy to carry alone. Some situations are simply out of your hands. Sometimes you have to count on others, whether you want to or not. Yes, it can be frightening. Yes, they may fail. But without them, failure is inevitable. There are mountains which are simply too high to climb alone.
Who do you trust?
Do you have people in your life you would trust with anything and everything? Trust God first and foremost, of course, but remember that even Jesus had a close circle of friends He counted on. Find yours, then let them in. Trust them. You just may be amazed at how strong a strand of three cords can be.
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