Trust Takes Time. Trust Requires Risk.
Finding out you’re only human is hard
I want to change the world
But I don’t know where to start
And I am bold enough to believe
There is hope among the ruins
Finding out you’re only human
In every.single.worthwhile relationship, there is trust. There has to be. If you’ve been hurt in the past, and trust has been broken, we’re all right there with you.
As humans, we are far from perfect. We hurt people. We ruin relationships. And others do the same to us.
I remember the day I found out Santa wasn’t real. It was Christmas morning, and I opened an outfit that I didn’t like. I was way too old to still believe in Santa, but hey! I trusted what my mom said! I tried on the outfit and showed it to my mom. She said it looked great; I said it didn’t. (Sorry, mom, for being a cranky, selfish, ungrateful little kid!) She then proceeded to tell me that she would take it back to the store.
I’m sorry. WHAT?! How could that even be possible?! It was from Santa! I stormed off to my room and cried. Trust was broken because of this, and as a kid, that was really a hard thing for me. Luckily, that wasn’t a huge thing, and I was able to gain trust back quickly.
But now that I’m an adult, trust has been broken in many other ways with friends, family members, in-laws, coworkers and others. And it hurts- so much more than finding out Santa isn’t real. But if we’re honest with each other, we’re only human. It’s a hard day when we find out the people we are in relationship with are only human too. So we’ve all been hurt. Where do we go from there?
Daniel and I have recently taken a class at our church that discussed trust, and these two sentences have been stuck in my mind ever since.
Trust Takes Time. Trust Requires Risk.
If we decide that the relationship we once had is worth being restored, we’ve got to really give it up. We’ve got to know that neither of the people in that relationship is perfect, and the only way to restore it is to give it time and take some risks.
Oh human enough to forgive
Oh human enough to embrace
The only one we can truly trust is Jesus. Proverbs 3:5 gives us some tremendous advice in this area. It tells us to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and not to lean on our own understanding. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I think I know it all – I’ve got it all planned out – and I can take care of things on my own. Being truthful, when I do life that way, it usually turns out completely backwards. I get hurt again and wonder why I tried to do it on my own.
I’ve been restored in my life, and I’ve seen relationships that have been restored even from the lowest of lows in marriages, families, friendships, work relationships, and even trusting ourselves again. I’m so thankful to God for showing me how He restores things. It’s not temporary, and it’s not only for a few of us. God loves all of us so much. He doesn’t want to see us living in sub par relationship with others. Thriving is what He loves!
Even if you never have before, I would challenge you to ask Him to reveal the good in the person who has hurt you…find hope for a healed relationship…give you courage to take the risk to trust again…give grace and forgiveness to those who have hurt you…and to help you remember that it takes time…
I am bold enough to believe
There’s hope among the ruins
