Trust

 I thought about trust this week.  It certainly doesn't feel like there is much trust in the country.  We can't even agree on what is "true" half the time.  Trust is fundamental in human relationships and interactions.  When everyone trusts and is trustworthy things go great.  When people don't and aren't things don't go so well.  So I actually like a different quote on trust today.  And it comes from Dean Ornish which will make one person I know happy. 

I like this quote because fear builds on itself as does trust.  Once you get a little win ( or a little loss) it is easy to build on that experience.  

It is scary to trust others because it makes us vulnerable.  I am going to avoid the two extremes here of trusting God ( Merton talked about that plenty during lent) and trusting total strangers and focus on friends, family and co workers. I think it is critical to trust and to be trustworthy for that is how we grow and relationships grow.  When I was in charge of 1000 people at Lakenheath hospital, it was very hard to trust that everyone would do their job well. My reputation and job were based on how well everyone performed.   I could have micromanaged and I probably would have felt less nervous but I would have driven everyone crazy and folks would not have grown and done the tremendous jobs they did.  It was scary but I trusted and it led to more trust. The trust fed on itself and slowly made its way up and down the organization.  

I think it works the same way within our families.  Of course, there may be members that can't be trusted. At work these people can be moved out of the organization but not in the family.  We must be careful but we can't give into fear, because fear leads to more fear.  We can always communicate honestly and clearly.  Obviously every situation will be different.  

How about you?  Are you willing to trust?  Do you strive to be trustworthy?

 

Pax

 

Joe