Perfect trust

I’ve been really into trust lately. I did a class on the teachings of the historical Jesus about the theme of trust in his teachings, and it really grabbed me.

In those teachings, trust comes up repeatedly in almost stunning terms. Jesus acts as if we can trust unequivocally all the time, no matter what, which means we have no need for fear or worry. And that even if we just go a little way in this direction, our trust will turn on a kind of divine faucet and allow God’s power to move through us in miraculous ways.

So a few days ago I practiced, “God is the strength in which I trust” (Lesson 47). Then I did “I trust my brothers, who are one with me” (Lesson 181). Today, I am doing a favorite: “I am entitled to perfect comfort, which comes from perfect trust.” I really love that one and it’s having a very comforting effect on mystate of mind today.

This morning in my quiet time I focused on trust in God. What I found as I looked in my mind was a few things. First, I do have a certain innate trust in God. It makes sense to me that any God worth the name would be absolutely trustworthy. So to me, the very concepts of “God” and of “trust” go hand in hand. Second, I noticed that I do have a fair amount of trust in God based on experience. He really has been there for me, often in very concrete and undeniable ways.

Third, I also noticed that I am still quite ambivalent about trusting God, especially in the specifics, for a number of reasons. Probably foremost is that He asks things of me I don’t want to do. Yet I asked myself who is likely to have a clearer view here—God, being God, or me, blinded by ego and appearances? That helped.

Finally, when in my meditation I focused on trusting God, I found that I absolutely love the idea of trusting God completely. I want something, something big and ultimate, that I can trust without reservation, without a doubt or a second thought. I think we all do. Not being able to trust in anything completely is an awful state. We want the mother we can go to for anything, in whose arms we can rest without any fear or worry. We want the safe harbor where we know our ship can float without a care. We want the perfect comfort that comes from perfect trust.

The conclusion I came to is that I want to let go of my lack of trust and change it over for the complete trust I just described. It’s not hard to see how perfect trust would automatically lead to perfect comfort. And who doesn’t want that?