My Dad, the smartest person ever, told me once that it is not doubt that is the opposite of faith, but certitude. In other words, if unwavering confidence exists, there is no need to "trust," and trust is therefore not only rendered obsolete, but the situation of absolute certainty does not even allow for faith to exist...
Trust, like faith, is an exceedingly abstract concept. It is an idea that can not be easily defined...
I'll explain.
The definition of "trust" offered by dictionary.com is "reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence."
Everyone trusts. I trust that when I get out of the car, I will not fall through the crust of the earth but that my feet will instead land securly on some form of concrete. I trust that when I wake up in the morning and walk down the stairs my family will not be waiting for me with a bazooka to blow my head off. I trust that my integerous (yes. it's a word. I say so.) friend will choose not to stab me in the back.
This type of trust is based off of a level of certitude, though, and therefore does not seem strikingly valuable. I trust my sister to not smother me in the middle of the night. Still, that says very little about our relationship or about the person she is or about the person that I am. Nothing is at stake.
When someone says, "Do you trust me?" (in an open-ended fashion as opposed to in refrence to a specific situation) what does he or she mean? What could he or she want? There has to be more. Where is it?
comment thoughtfully, please...
"I suppose there are two views about everything," said Mark. "Eh? Two views? There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there's never more than one. But it's no affair of mine. Good night."-That Hideous Strength
He has injured us...
..now he will bandage our wounds. -Hosea 6
2 Corinthians 12:9
"Each time he said, "my grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness."
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- "We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving. And we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing." -Louisa May Alcott
5 comments:
Right...like "Do you trust me to make you a good sandwich?" and "Do you trust me to take good care of your kids?" I can think of MANY people that I would trust to make me a sandwich, but I would never leave my kids alone with them.
It's all in the details. I don't always trust myself in certain situations. I certainly don't trust myself alone in a room with a bunch of cupcakes.
i guess you just have to believe that people have just a little bit of good in them....
Nice vocab Caitlin - Im lovin' it.
-Certitude: "total certainty or greater certainty than circumstances warrant."
-Integrous very much ought to be a word. [EDIT: I'm outraged. Google Define doesn't believe that it is a word.]
Alright right.. second best:
Integrity: "totality with nothing wanting; moral soundness."
Alright, now for the post. I like your Dad's thinking on faith - and yours). But Im not sure I wholly agree.
"This type of trust is based off of a level of certitude, though." I might say it is just based off of what you know of your family - you want to be able to trust and in most cases you can.
I think you should compare what the Bible says about Faith and Hope. (If I had more time [maybe I will later] I'd look up some Bible verses) The Bible says we have a "firm hope" that "can't be shaken" (references to come). You can call this certitude if you want, but I think it should be something we are so convinced about that we can't change our mind. Does that make sense?
I hope this comment was thoughtful - love to talk about it sometime.
i think when someone asks, "Do you trust me?" Open-ended like that it is because they are asking if you trust them to be who you know them to be.
I think that you're right, Chris.
:)
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