Trust
/trəst/
"assured
reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something"
{http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trust}
Love is a risky thing. There is no way to love safely, to pour out emotions and hearts and souls into another sinful human being and never come away with a few scrapes and bruises. But yet, after all is said and done and blows have been dealt on either side, I think we as human beings approach forgiveness and love and trust in the wrong way.
We look at love as if people need to deserve our love first before we grant it.
We scramble to pick up the broken pieces of our own lives and relationships in order to forgive and look past wrongs without ill-intent. And then we attempt to trust again and regain trust but regaining belief and conviction a person that has wronged us is a task that takes time and consistent integrity and effort. And then, after we can fully forgive and fully trust, then we say we love. Only until we can fully reconcile and overlook past wrongs do we dare to love, to regift ourselves.
We are scared. We are scared to love unconditionally so we put up little parameters, little boxes to check off. First we must be able to forgive, second to trust, and then we can finally check off love. Love is a risky, dangerous, scary thing, and so we shrink from it to protect ourselves, finding conditions and requirements before we can fully pour ourselves out for another human being.
But God doesn't love us with prerequisites.
If love has to be deserved or earned, we would never be able to merit the abundant, breathtaking love of God.
He loves us with a radical kind of a love. A love that is not dependent on our response. A love that is unconditional, without conditions. When we were unlovable, dead in our sins, living in rebellion against Him, and hurting the very One who created us in our rejection of Him, He loved us. He loved us though there was no reason for Him to forgive us. And because of the riches of His love, He forgave us, piling blessings of grace upon blessing. Because of His love, He saved us, making us right with Him.
Love comes first. Without love, we cannot hope to overlook past wrongs, because truth is, people have wronged us and we have wronged others. People will break our trust time after time again, and we will never completely deserve the trust of others.
If trust and forgiveness are prerequisites for love, we will never be able to truly love because we are broken people.
If trust and forgiveness are prerequisites for love, we will never be able to be loved because we are broken people.
The past few months I have struggled with trust. Struggled to trust and struggled to earn trust. But I've realized that I've been approaching trust wrong.
Trust isn't a prerequisite for love. It is a product of love.
Trust is what love does. Trust is a result of a 1 Corinthians 13 type of a love, a love that is patient, kind, not easily irritated. It comes from a love that endures all things and hopes despite all odds. A love that is long suffering.
God loves us unconditionally, without conditions. When we begin to love the way God loves, when we look beyond ourselves and love another human being sacrificially with patience and joy, we can trust because we love. When we patiently work with one another in our weaknesses, when we humbly put the wellbeing of others before ourselves, when we stifle our anger, when we choose not to bring to mind the faults of others, when we persevere with one another, we can begin to trust and forgive.
I am undeserving of trust and forgiveness. But I receive trust and forgiveness from God and from others around me because they love me more than I could ever deserve. And in the same way, I desire to love radically, in abandonment of self because that is how my God loves me.
