Today I received a package of face masks that I had ordered back in April. As you might expect, they had been shipped from China even though I had ordered them from Amazon and I don't recall seeing any mention regarding where they were being sourced. As I was disinfecting the wrappers it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps I shouldn't trust the contents. After all, this is the country of Covid19 that had shut down its domestic travel while allowing hundreds of thousands to continue traveling to the United States and elsewhere. I won't go further into detail regarding such disgraceful behavior, or about the pandemic it has caused. Suffice to say, my mind wondered whether or not they might be sinister enough to also have shipped contaminated face masks? At this point in my thinking I didn't care about how long my package had been in shipment, trust had been broken on a massive scale. Of course, this was not the first time our ability to trust the Chinese had been tested; anyone with pets will recall the issues with pet food, dog treats and more. Now we have to consider the very real risks of trusting such a country to be a supplier of key pharmaceuticals and other strategic materials. I believe we will have to think long and hard about that.
Trust is a very delicate thing, whether it involves global relationships, commercial relationships, or personal relationships. I know from my own business experience that I carefully avoided doing business with any company I feel I couldn't trust, and I certainly wouldn't work for one. The same is true of people, both in my business as well as my personal life. If I don't feel that I can trust you, then I don't have desire to engage with you. Thus it is that with personal relationships trust becomes an even more critical factor. Who wants to invest in a friendship with someone who shows themselves to be untrustworthy? Take that to the level of our life-long partner and trust is a major pillar of our relationship, one that is right up there with respect and communications, all of which support our ability to love and sustain the relationship. If broken, then repairing that trust is extremely difficult. Without a strong shared faith, I would submit that it is likely impossible. The reason I say this is because a strong shared faith means that our marriage relationship includes another entity, Jesus Christ. As He knows and we know, failure for us is inevitable in one way and to one degree or another, but through Him and with Him there is a way back. Repentance, yes, but also accompanied by a commitment to amend our lives so that we don't fall back into the behavior that was the cause of the breach of trust in the first place. Moreover, both parties must agree that they want to restore the relationship and the essential trust that is the backbone of it. This must include a strong, faith-based and mutual commitment with both parties understanding that any further breach involves not just our earthly partner, but also our spiritual one.
Then we come to our trust in God, His Son, and in the Holy Spirit that he sent to instruct, guide, and be a mentor to us. This trust we know we can rely on unequivocally. All scripture supports the reality of the Son He sent to give us hope, and the salvation he earned for us on a wooden cross at Calvary. All faith rests on the Resurrection, and all trust rests on faith. As He instructed us, "love one another as I have loved you!"Â So, build a wall of trust that Satan cannot break through, because you know he is going to try!