BLIND FAITH

One of the many tools used in leadership classes as well as team building is the teaching of trust.  Stand on a platform 8 feet high, cross your arms in front of your body and fall backwards into the arms of your team with no attempt to catch yourself---you have to trust they will catch you.  Completing a rope course with your team is another tool to inspire trust and teamwork.  Do we have to teach trust or is it earned?  What happens when we break trust and do not perform as expected?  Are we able to regain that trust?  Do we blindly trust what we are told and expect others to fulfill their word? 

Trust comes from faith---Faith-the firm belief in something for which there is no basis.  What is the old saying?  "Fool me once shame on you; fool me twice shame on me?"  Until we have had experiences which jade our perspective, our natural inclination is to trust others, probably rooted in our life experiences beginning as a baby.  A baby trusts-instinctively-someone will come and fulfill their need, if they cry.  Our trust factor is high--until someone breaks our trust, and then we begin to build a wall of doubt. 

Trust and faith are so intertwined that it is like the chicken and the egg--which came first?  I trust God because of my faith---I have faith that I can trust God.  

Long ago a young girl--was visited by an angel and told that though she was a virgin, she would have a baby--He would be the promised Messiah.  Her husband- to- be was visited by an angel, he was told to accept this girl though she was pregnant.  They must have been knocked off their feet by this announcement--HOW COULD THIS BE?  They trusted God and on faith moved forward to fulfill His revelation to them.  They did not flee--they fulfilled their promise to one another--and they trusted God with faith.

It was time for a census---anyone who has ever been 9 months pregnant can testify the last thing you want to do at this stage is walk or ride a donkey for miles.  There would not be a place to stay--they knew that when they left--for knowing there trip would be slow--everyone else would get there first and they would be out in the cold with no place to stay--they had faith God would provide.  

Finally arriving and the pangs of childbirth already coming--they searched and kept knocking--someone took pity and let them stay in the barn. They kept looking in faith knowing God would provide.

A baby was born under a star so bright that no light was needed.  Angels sang, shepherds walked up, and eventually wise men brought gifts---all accepting in faith with trust that the Messiah had arrived.

With faith they trusted--knowing God has NEVER broken His Word.  Blind faith in a God they had not seen.  Trust in His unrevealed plan.  Never doubting proceeding down the path He had planned long ago, they had faith He could be trusted.

Do I have this same blind faith?  He has proven over and over He can be trusted.  Why can I not relinquish control and trust blindly with faith?  I am praying for that same blind faith of long ago--trusting He will reveal His will as I walk the path.  ALL for his good glory.

"I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered.

May it be to me as you have said."

Luke 1:38