Trust builds relationships

We live in a world where there is an incredible lack of trust.  We don't trust anyone to do anything.  We don't trust that others won't sue us, so we have waivers for nearly every activity under the sun.  We don't trust our community, so we have video surveillance.  We don't trust our kids, or even ourselves, so we have have firewalls on our computers.  Yet, trust is THE currency for relationships, and it builds and strengthens relationships like nothing else.  We just rarely see it anymore.

That's why I was shocked on Monday when I went to eat lunch at a local restaurant.  They don't take cards, only cash, and the server/cashier said, "Don't worry if you don't have any cash, you can just pay us next time you come in."  But I had never been before.  And how did she know I was coming back?  What if I was from out of town?  I had cash, so I paid my bill, but it was still staggering.  But you know what?  It made me want to come back.  The burger I was about to order was now going to taste better because she trusted me.  She believed in me.  She thought there was good in me.  Often, we find what we're looking for.

Trust is believing there is something good in others.  Now, people will disappoint us and hurt us, but we don't do each other, society, and our families any good when we don't trust each other.  Instead, when we trust others, we can often bring out the best in them because, deep down, we humans don't really want to let each other down.

If you want deep relationships, you have to trust.  This is what is so profound about our relationship with God.  He trusts us with so much.  He trusts us with our freedom, the earth, our families.  He trusts us with His Church and His message.  He trusts us with His heart.  And when we don't trust Him, our relationship with God suffers.  Trust is THE currency of relationships.  When we withhold trust from God, we are saying that we aren't sure if there is good in Him.  We are unsure of Him.  We are thinking He might let us down.  He won't.  Think about all He has trusted you with.  It's because He loves you and believes in you.  That ought to inspire us to trust Him.

I certainly wanted to trust Casey's in downtown Winder with my business again because they trusted me.  BTW, the Bacon Pimento Cheese Burger with Sweet Potato Fries is spot on.

When Disaster Strikes

Canaan United Methodist Church in Ridgeville, SC

I am a native South Carolinian.  I was born in Rock Hill, south of Charlotte, and raised in a small town called Williamston on the banks of the Saluda River.   My folks live in the Upstate, and my brother, sister-in-law and two nephews live in the Midlands.  I have cousins and aunts and uncles there.  For nearly 18 years of my life, it was home.  This past week, Mother Nature ravaged the Palmetto State.  The death count continues to rise, the damage is inexplicable, schools are still closed and it raised questions that we all struggle with when disaster strikes.

• Why would God allow such a thing to happen?
• If God controls the weather, why didn't he stop it?
• Where is God in natural disasters?

God allows a lot.  Contrary to popular belief, I don't believe the message of the Bible is one of a puppet-master God in the sky who controls every moment in history.  Being in control and controlling are two different things.  God is in control, but God doesn't control everything.  

Sin knocked the cosmos off its axis.  In the Garden of Eden, sin caused childbirth to be painful and the ground to become difficult in agriculture.  We take these things as normal.  They are not normal.  God did not intend them to be this way.  Sin brought death to humanity.  Sin broke the world, and we're still living in the brokenness.  A crazed gunman at a college campus, a flood in South Carolina, and cancer in a loved one.  They are reminders of our brokenness.

Is there good news?  The message of Jesus is that he is redeeming all this -- he is making all things new.  And one day, when there is a New Heaven and New Earth, this will all be fixed.  Murder is not normal.  Natural Disasters aren't normal.  Cancer isn't normal.  God is fixing this back to the way it should be.  And He can fix it through us.

When we reach out in love across the picket line, when we volunteer and donate to disaster relief, when we care for a friend with cancer, when we pray for the family of the murdered, when we choose love over hate, when we choose selflessness over selfishness, we begin to bring more of that redemption into this world.  God is with us.  The question is how will we allow Him to revealed in us?  

God didn't do this.  Stop saying that.  God's not into flooding things anymore.  Trust me.  I read about it one time.  It's a broken world.  It's messed up.  We're messed up.  Our weather is messed up.  Our systems are messed up.  How are allowing Him to fix a corner of this messed up world through you?  How is He redeeming you, making you new, restoring you?