The Vision of Mistrust
“Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.” (Psalm 131:3)
“I don’t trust you.”
Those words have been said in a variety of situations: Parents to their teenager who has a tendency to scheme, the government towards the pharmaceutical industry, citizens toward law enforcement, and teachers toward their students.
Trust is in short supply these days. The news we receive often weaves a path grounded in mistrust. Granted, wise consideration of the circumstances can usually lead to intelligent mistrust, like when one of the multitude of roofing company salesmen shows up on your doorstep or when the timeshare salesperson makes you think you are an imbecile for not forking up the dollars for that week at a condo on an overcrowded beach in Florida.
However, mistrust is as rampant today as coughing and sneezing kids in school. How did we get to this point of unbelievability anyway?
In my opinion, it has become easier to believe in words of mistrust than words that require trust. Mistrust doesn’t need a leap of faith, while blind trust might lead someone to fall off a cliff. And quite frankly, our culture, like a palm tree during a tropical storm, leans heavily to mistrust. Perhaps it’s the scammers that are proliferating like springtime dandelions. We hear too many stories of people who have been drawn into their web of deceit and lost massive amounts of money. As people have wised up in specific ways, the scammers have become more sophisticated and creative in their crimes.
This past week, a postcard attached to our front door informed us that we had a package that couldn’t be delivered and told us to call a specific number. There was no indication who had sent the card. My wife, wise beyond words, asked me if I had ordered something. I hadn’t, and she correctly judged it to be a scam. It brought back memories of the old days when a man selling Filter Queen vacuum cleaners almost convinced us, newlyweds at the time, to buy one at a hefty price after leaving a postcard on our apartment door.
In essence, we’ve evolved into being skeptical. The tragedy is that if mistrust develops in someone as their “go-to,” he will never develop the capacity to hope. Hope is one of the destinations of trust. It requires loosening the grip that has tightened with our fears. Hope is attached to the hand of God. It is a deep belief that God has me in His grasp. Psalm 131:2 gives us the picture: “Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content.” (The Message)
In a mistrusting world, I am firm in my belief that I can trust the Lord. It’s the anchor that holds firm, even as our culture’s behavior erodes. It’s the blanket that warms me as the bitterness of the world chills people’s attitudes.
I am content in the arms of God, secure in His embrace.
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