Belief vs Trust

What does it mean to trust God? I’m not talking about belief. I believe in God with all my heart. I don’t believe a world as complex as ours - from our DNA to galaxies that potentially extend to infinity - is some random accident of nature. But despite that belief, I struggle to trust God. I struggle to remember His love and care. I get angry with all the things that have happened to me. While I don’t believe He consciously tries to hurt me, the reality is I have been very hurt and He’s sat back and watched me suffer.

How do I trust a God that allows suffering? How do I trust a God that tolerates hate? How do I recognize a God of love when His “followers” cause such harm?

I don’t have answers, but I have thoughts. Thoughts I cling to when the pain and fear threaten to overwhelm me. I believe God created the world and charged people to take care of it. The fact that we have sacrificed that duty to profits and hubris, doesn’t reflect back on God but on us. We have a responsibility to take care of this world, and we have rejected that long term charge for short term gain.

I believe God created us to love but our selfishness has turned us towards hate. We no longer treasure our world and the people in it. We no longer sacrifice for the sake of others. We no longer cherish the gifts that each person, tribe, or community offers. Instead, we “look out for number 1”.

I believe we each have a calling to fulfill and that calling is to benefit others not just ourselves. We each have tremendous gifts to share with the world. Whether small or large, we each are called to give.

We’ve lost our sense of community and instead devolved into “us” versus “them”. We’ve missed the point of God. We’ve missed the love of God. We’ve missed His gifts to us as a world and instead act as if individual accomplishments are the goal.

Do I trust God? Too often I miss the point and say “No”. The truth is, God is trustworthy, it’s His children who aren’t. The world has become a scary place but it’s our arrogance that makes it seem like we’re the victims. The world has been a scary place for people all over the globe for a very long time. It doesn’t start or end with the United States. We became complacent. We stopped seeing our blessings. Instead, we traded blessings for entitlement. God is with us. He hears our prayers. He just allows us to get what we too often deserve. We created hatred and persecution. We allowed suffering. There’s a meme going around where a person asks Jesus why He allows suffering in this world and He responds with, “I was just going to ask you the same thing.”

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash