Trust

July 18

People are going to trust in something or someone. They will invest themselves in a politician who promises to take care of them from the cradle to the grave. They will have subsidized housing and food stamps and a government-provided education if they are of a mind to pursue an education.

Of course, if their education equips them to obtain a well-paying job, they will inadvertently have joined the ranks of those citizens who are taxed and thereby become a supplier of all-things-provided-by-the-government for those who choose not to work. The fallacy of such thinking is lost upon individuals whose goal in life is to have ‘something for nothing.’ It is not lost upon the politicians who exploit them.

Misplaced trust is not exclusively given to duplicitous politicians who secure their power through the masses of slavish and gullible citizenry who look to them for their needs to be met. It can also be invested in personal relationships that are demeaning, which take advantage of susceptible people who refuse to recognize that they are being manipulated for the selfish ends of those in whom they have placed their confidence.

And the scenarios where trusts are betrayed can extend well beyond these. What are people to do then? The Bible supplies a wonderful answer in Jeremiah 17:7, 8, where the prophet says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him; he will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear the heat. Its leaves are always green and…it never fails to bear fruit.