Pause for thought - September 17 2004

 Pause for thought - BBC Radio 2 - Joel Edwards

A QUESTION OF TRUST 

Its virtually impossible to go through a day without some kind of evidence that trust is running low in our society.

Mind you, there are some people who think we’re as trusting as ever but stories about a lack of trust just make better headlines. They might well be right. But you know what they say: perceptions are as real as reality itself. And what we’re feeling about a lack of trust is just as unnerving as the real thing.

A bit like crime, I suppose.

A while ago a European survey said 54% of people in Europe don’t trust politicians. The world of business is constantly throwing up examples of bad dealings, and few of us really believe what our media tell us.

And those of us in the business of religion don’t get off scot-free either. The same survey said, that although 7 in 10 people trust the clergy, only 4 in 10 trust the church as an institution.

When you think about it, this growing nervousness about who you can trust is a kind of national crisis. You can’t have a healthy society when trust goes missing.

Who wants to be on a hospital ward where the surgeon walks in wearing a T-shirt which says, "0ops!"

Everybody has to trust somebody. Life is impossible without it.

Which reminds me of a sign I saw over a funeral parlour in Zimbabwe which said, "You can trust us. We’re the last ones to let you down!"

If faith in God has anything to say to us on this subject its that trust in God gives us the perfect environment in which to practise the tricky and risky business of trusting other people. In the interaction of trusting God, I find the capacity to become a little more trustworthy myself.

For if God trusts me, why can’t I trust someone else?

That’s why the book of Psalms says, "Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion which cannot be shaken."

Trust allows us to be sceptical about some things, but pulls us back from the paranoia which destroys relationships. Trusting is what it means to be a person. And a trustworthy person in the home, workplace or sports field makes a powerful contribution to the restoration of our communities.

It’s the ability to believe in promises and to make promises.

Or as Jesus put it, you’re much more likely to let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’

Rev. Joel Edwards