On Believing

Who your backup is constitutes a genuine concern in the realm of law enforcement because one may be literally placing her/his life in that person’s hands. As I reflected on my remarks leading up to Mary’s and my anniversary last Friday I realized how very much the same is true of any relationship where trust is necessarily grounded in confidence. Indeed, I will go so far as to say that confidence is as critically important to trust as trust is to love. Perhaps it says more about my limited imagination than anything else but I cannot conceive of a situation where trust is authentic without an almost absolute confidence in that which is to be trusted or where similarly an absolute trust is required for genuine love. As the components continue to be broken down it can be seen then how critical honesty and truthfulness are to the whole equation. As I ponder the call of the Christ to express our genuine discipleship by loving everyone as everyone is loved I am impressed by how profoundly moral the process is, especially when it is understood how the whole must necessarily include all. What does not tax my imagination at all is to conceive of the myriad of ways that trust is eroded by shattered confidence. I daresay that no one has not experienced the disillusionment of a lie or falsehood, a phenomenon much more integral to the harmonious coexistence of humankind than some figurative tally sheet that God keeps. More than being just pretty words from the Bible, the Christ’s admonition forcefully challenges us to consider the impact of not being true to our word and to envision honesty and truthfulness as key steps toward responding to the call.