There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus. —Blaise Pascal
I know what you might be thinking right now, and I don’t blame you: “What’s the difference between faith and trust?” This is a great question and one I think about often. Perhaps you do, too. Things in the world have grown increasingly uncertain in recent times, and many I speak to wonder whether anything will get to a reasonable state of normalcy again.
Institutions often falter, no matter where one goes. Governments at every level, their representative entities seem less accountable, even in places in the west where representative governments are more the norm than the exception. The same can be said for people in positions of authority within these entities.
Why then the issue of faith vs. trust. I guess we have to agree on a convenient and somewhat reliable definition for both, even though the differences are very small.
I like to use Scripture for certain definitions of words. Faith and Trust are given great definitions that are in common use today, whether one believes in God or not.
Faith is a noun. Merriam-Webster defines it as “belief, trust in, and loyalty to God.”
Trust is either a noun or a verb, depending on context and use. As a noun it means “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.” As a verb it means “to rely on the truthfulness, or accuracy of,” “to believe,” “to commit or place in one’s care,” or “to place confidence in.”
I love Blaise Pascal. He was a French philosopher, mathematician, and engineer—designed a rudimentary calculator—who was born about 400 years ago. For him, the worldly things that everyone recognizes for genius took a backseat to his philosophy which, as a Catholic, meant God would be involved. Like his math and engineering, Pascal gave God and Jesus A LOT of thought. He died before he was 40, and his ideas in every arena of thought are still used, and cited today.
It’s a curious thing to me how so many brilliant minds of the 21st century have disposed of any notion of a deity and concluded that their brainpower or the products thereof are better than any notion of my God could ever be. People whose ideas and opinions I greatly respect for their depth, wit, and application to the good of mankind have decided that the opinions, and faith of people like me, in a God Who can, by scientific means, be demonstrated to have created a good earth for us to ruin as we have.
I submit that people like me, a Christian, can no longer enunciate principles with which I hold by faith as truths (see definitions above) without being silenced or ridiculed by those with whom a different opinion is more highly valued in this chaotic, and increasingly, out of control world.
The other night U.S. Presidential candidate and current Vice
President Kamala Harris was at a rally in Wisconsin when she was interrupted by
anti-abortion protesters who shouted in unison, “Jesus is Lord!”, and “Christ is
King!”.
Interruptions by protesters are nothing new in American politics, especially these days, rude as it is. It certainly isn’t something I would do, and one of the reasons I don’t attend any of these mindless displays of loyalty to people I don’t trust. Harris paid close attention to them, though, and with no hesitation responded, “Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally,” “No, I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street.”
As one would expect in any venue, the protesters were shown the door to the thunderous applause of onlookers.
This is not a jab at Ms. Harris, although I agree with the anti-abortion stance. But I believe public policy about personal health issues should be kept out of government hands, because government is singularly poor at just about everything it does. Trump, like Harris, is just as inept and will do no better of a job at what many of us consider to be the most important aspects of governing in an increasing unprincipled, and unguided world.
We jab back and forth about the economy, and immigration, and abortion rights but to what end? None of the people in political power wield the power on their own, with impunity. There are always massive amounts of money behind them to procure their influence, and sell you on vacuous ideas who each candidate is before election day.
Trump will be a Hitlerian dictator, or Harris will let in every criminal gang and terrorist unvetted through our southern border, while she gives free stuff to them, and make the billionaires pay. Trump will be doing his own version of giveaways, too. Tax breaks to the rich, because he’s rich. Just look at the ads that all the billionaires have paid for!
I live in a heavily red, Republican area of a battleground state. It could go either way around here. One must be very careful to express a view about religion or politics. Escalation occurs quickly. I’m careful to speak to sensible people that I know to be peaceful in a disagreement.
Here’s the thing about America: There is no longer a consensus view that an American Dream exists for those of us that grew up with ambitions to pursue whatever his or her vision of that dream was. Some people in positions of influence will declare outright that “The American Dream is Dead.”
I’m neither influential nor an expert on anyone’s vision of that dream. I believe the nation is drastically off track, though, and there are profound reasons why and individuals and their thinking and behaviors have everything to do with this.
Modern people and institutions tend to get really defensive about certain words and ideas, especially when one ties them to certain books like The Bible or any other religious holy book identified with other religions.
I don’t think anyone ever likes to engage in heavy discussions about the notions of “sin” and “repentance” these days. Whatever your ideas are about these words and their meanings, it’s important to put them into the context of how they might contribute to or detract from our ability to make our lives better by addressing them individually or collectively.
As a believer in God, these concepts have great meaning for me but, as with politics, I’m careful with whom and how I broach the subjects. In politics, one will never here these mentioned these days, and I would challenge anyone to point to any time in recent years when they have. Oh sure, you’ll hear words and concepts intertwined to do with “morality” and “ethics” all the time. So much so, that they have been substituted, if not conflated with the ideas of “sin,” “wickedness,” and “repentance.” The latter having long been relegated to churches, cathedrals, and the dark corners of Hollywood movies that cast shade on religion, religious figures, and Christianity.
I don’t want to get too far afield, but even the Woke Movement of the past several years has done its level best to make Christianity an evil in the world, making any person’s individual desires alright and free from the judgments of anyone. Cancel Culture has become a court on its own to deal with those who wish to object to any facet of “wokeism.” Cancel Culture, with Woke ideology, has become a religion of its own, and it is a moving target. Its punishments are harsh, and unforgiving, and as far as its practitioners are concerned, every sentence should be a life sentence or death, whether of career, finances, home, or actually oneself.
As a Jesus follower, my first rule is the one He Himself left with all those who would follow Him in the 2,000 years since He died on the cross outside the walls of Jerusalem. Yes, that same city that is capital to those people some call war criminals for killing terrorists who threaten Israel’s existence. Ironically, it is the rule by which the godless world would have the rest of us live by in order to get what they want in order to impose control, a ceasefire in Gaza or Lebanon for example.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35 (NIV)
But this is the 21st century world. Conflating definitions, making true examples of love like Jesus Christ Himself into something human, and not God, and punishing those who want nothing more than to be left alone to coexist—now there’s a modern religion in itself—in peace, for exercising measures that accomplish this against those who bring war and terror.
So, what of faith and trust? You see wherein my faith lies and for good reason. Systems and organizations we have established have proven pointless in accomplishing anything for a common good in the world. If anything, these establishments have only compounded the problems, and made them difficult—if not impossible—to solve.
Since they are made up of, and designed by, humans I have next to no trust in any of them whether they are in my homeland of America, or even less any other country abroad. Hopelessness is not in my makeup, and I hope not in yours either, dear reader. Therefore, I am sincerely and happily left with my faith and trust in the God of The Bible. The One everyone in the modern world loves to spit upon, deny, and whose followers are denigrated around the world.
While the world roils about in its chaos, our mutual enemy—whether we believe it or not—Satan, is prowling about knowing his time is short. Maybe shorter than many of us believe. God has a lot to say about the plans of those who deny Him, and this is one among a representative example. I’ll end with this:
Why do the nations
conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord and against his
anointed, saying,
“Let us break their chains
and throw off their shackles.”
The One
enthroned in heaven laughs;
the Lord scoffs at them.
He rebukes them in his anger
and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
“I have installed my king
on Zion, my holy mountain.” Psalm 2:1-6 (NIV)
We aren’t fighting holy wars in the west, but our enemies from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa certainly are. They proclaim out loud their hatred of America, Israel, Christians, and Jews. They have sycophants in our land, and we allow them in unchecked at the border. Some have been arrested with plans to disrupt our upcoming elections.
Where is your faith? Who do you trust?
