On Trust

"You can't go through life thinking that everyone you meet will one day let you down," Danny Glover's character says in Angels in the Outfield.

Yet our experiences constantly prove that people are not to be trusted. They will lie to your face and defend themselves for it vigorously afterwards—it wasn't really a lie because everyone says such-and-such in this-or-that situation. It wasn't a lie because everyone knew it wasn’t true. It was a lie, but it wasn't a big deal.

Every lie is a big deal. Every exaggeration, every omission, every error of speech, every careless word is a huge deal. ("But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." – Matthew 12:36-37)

Seen in this light, "everyone does it" is not only an invalid excuse, it is a greater condemnation. There is no hope that anyone will ever be worthy of trust.

"Do not trust in princes,
In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation."
~~ Psalm 146:3

"As it is written, 'THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.'"
~~Romans 9:10-12

Have you ever felt the weight of that statement? Not even one is anything but useless. Not him, not her, not you, and certainly not I.

I cry out, with the disciples, "Then who can be saved?" And I receive the words they heard, the words that put them in their proper place and at the same time showed them the perspective they had been missing: "With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:25-26).

"How blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust,
And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood."
~~ Psalm 40:4

We are all proud. We all lapse into falsehood. People are not to be trusted—nor are they meant to be. In the end, there is only one worthy of trust, and only when we are trusting Him as we should can we see the deceit and failures of others and of ourselves in their proper perspective.