Trust, small word hard concept. Trust God, small sentence hard concept. We have heard it many times and in many different ways, trust is one of the hardest things to earn yet one of the easiest to lose (and hardest to re-gain). Why do we have such a hard time trusting? Why do we have such a hard time trusting the Lord? Quite simply, humans fail. As quickly as you learn to trust someone and become open and vulnerable, something is said or something is done and the trust you believed was there is gone. Your best friend lies, your husband cheats, your children deceive, your co-worker competes, your character is attacked. You go through months of false accusations, miscommunication, and misunderstandings; you feel all blame is being placed on you, when in truth all you have done is love, listen, and care. You go through months of seeing others "happy" on behalf of your hurt and pain. Trust, so quickly broken, so slowly regained. It is no wonder that when it comes to trusting the Lord, we as humans constantly struggle. When all we know is how we feel, and how we feel is broken and used, and all we see are humans failing, how can we trust Someone we can not see to never fail us nor leave us broken? One of the greatest mistakes we as humans make is placing godly characteristics on humans (they will not fail us) and human characteristics on God (he will fail us). We expect humans to be more like God and God to be more like humans. We see the hurt and the pain that our friends and family have caused yet expect them to never hurt us never make us feel pain. We know the Lord is faithful and we can trust Him because He is the same yesterday today and forever, constant never changing, yet we expect Him to hurt us and make us feel pain because that is what here on earth we constantly battle. So how do we respond to broken trust, to hurt, to pain? How do we trust the Lord and others? We respond by forgiving, loving, and believing. Forgiveness is the first step towards learning to trust again. We must forgive others for the sins committed against us. We forgive because we have been forgiven. Will it be hard to trust again? Yes, it will be. Will there be times where we wonder and doubt? Yes, there will be. Will the relationship always be mended? No, it will not always. Will there be moments in mended and reconciled relationships where the one who has broken trust must understand the struggle of the other to trust again and be patient and forgiving and loving towards them? Yes, there will. But in order to move forward in trusting we must forgive. The Lord was denied three times before His death, yet He still uttered "Forgive them..." But it does not start and stop with forgiveness, we also must love others despite the sins committed against us, despite the broken promises deceits and hurts. We love because He first loved us. Will it be hard to love someone who has hurt? Yes, it will be. Will it be hard to love unconditionally and despite the pain? Yes, it will be. Will we always act out of love towards the other? No, we will not always. Will it take understanding by the other and their loving of us? Yes, if reconciliation of trust is to happen. But in order to trust again we must love. The Lord hung on a cross for us out of love, despite all we had done, despite all our sins, He still loved. And we believe, we believe that true reconciliation is possible. We believe that forgiveness and love can conquer a multitude of sins. We believe because even despite our faithlessness, He is still faithful. We as believers in Christ can see that despite the pain and hurt and trials of this life, He has never changed, always the same, His love has never failed, His forgiveness and mercies are new every morning. And we can believe that reconciliation and restoration is possible. Will every relationship be mended? No, it will not. Will every person who has caused feelings of hurt and pain seek forgiveness? No, they will not. But we have the power within us to forgive, to love, and to believe that with Him we can trust again, that even if we are hurt again, that even if our trust in someone is broken again, we can always Trust God because He is faithful even when those around us and even when we ourselves are faithless. During this Lenten season let us begin to truly grasp how deep and how wide is the forgiveness and love of the Lord and we let us truly believe we can Trust Him through every season.
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