By Chris WittsThursday 14 Nov 2024Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
I was interested to read in the Reader’s Digest article a list of professions in which people trust most. The article was called Australia’s Most Trusted, and it revealed that we trust ambulance officers the most, followed by firefighters, pilots and nurses and in the list of 30. Politicians come 29 followed by telemarketers at number 30.
It was quite a surprise to me to read that hairdressers, they were at number 12 are more trusted than ministers of religion at 17. It’s quite fascinating, I think, to ask the question, who do you trust and what is trust? And the Macquarie Dictionary says that trust is a reliance on the integrity of a person. It’s a confident expectation of something to hope.
Working out trust in our world
A little child instinctively trust his parents, doesn’t it? And doctors tell us that if a child doesn’t bond with a parent or guardian in the early months of life, this child will have trouble trusting others when he or she gets older, and those who are in the know on this and have studied it, it’s obvious there can be serious emotional problems if that bonding doesn’t happen, if the spirit of trust is not developed A fracture may occur in that child’s spirit and personality.
So because we need to mix with other people, it’s part of life to trust people or at least learn to trust them and to believe in something beyond ourselves. People will trust someone who has a reputation of being honest, who is reliable and responsible. On the other hand, of course, dishonesty can easily tarnish that reputation.
And if you’re a dishonest person, you’ll get a reputation as being untrustworthy. One of the big selling points in advertising is the company says you can trust us. Whether that’s correct or not is another issue. But people generally know if they’re being treated fairly or if they’re being ripped off. And if someone says of you, he’s a trustworthy person, they mean that you can be counted on at all times. You’re reliable and you won’t shirk your duty, and I think it’s a great compliment to be called a reliable person.
If you’ve got a close friend, someone you trust, you’ll feel that you can trust them. You can share information with them. You accept what they say is truthful and you feel that sense of confidence in talking to someone like that. When Sir Edmund Hillary made his historic climb of Mount Everest, Hillary had a faithful guide. His name was Tan Zing. Coming down off the peak one day, Hillary suddenly lost his footing and Tan Zing held the line very tightly, and that in fact kept them both from falling. He dug his axe into the ice.
In fact, he did save Hillary’s life, but he refused to take any of the credit for that. It was part of his job, he said. And in talking about it later, he said, mountain climbers always help each other.
Trust exemplified
Now I like that story. It was a simple statement, but something that stuck out to me, is that it was a good illustration there of reliability – of trustworthiness, especially when your life is actually threatened.
I heard the unusual story of a farmer in India who used to sell milk, but he had to do it the hard way. Even in the heat of the Indian summer, he had to take his cow with him door by door as he sold his milk. Why was he doing this? Well, one time he was caught by some of the housewives watering down the milk to his customers, adding water, of course. So they insisted that the cow be milked in front of them.
He couldn’t be trusted. His life of dishonesty doomed him to drudgery, of having to milk that cow in front of every customer.
When you think about it, there is practically no area of life in which trust doesn’t play an important part in everyday life. For example, you turn the tap on and you trust that the water will be clean. It’s not going to poison you. The breakfast cereal that you ate this morning. You believe that’s not going to harm you in hundreds of situations. We exercise trust.
Do you know that we live today in a fallen world? The Bible has a warning in Psalm 146:3, it says, Do not put your trust in mortal men.
In other words, it’s far better to trust in God who never changes. God who can be trusted in every way. The Bible says that God is faithful. So isn’t it a relief to know that we can turn to the trustworthy character of God? God who keeps faith with us.
Let’s Pray
Well, Heavenly Father, we thank you today. Thank you for your presence. We thank you, Lord, that we can trust you above all else. May we do that and thank you. In the name of Jesus, Amen.