Trust Issues

 

I remember vividly the first presidential election that I voted in. It was 1980, I was 20 years old, and we elected Ronald Reagan. It was a landslide victory against Jimmy Carter. I have not missed voting in a presidential election since and have voted in pretty much most off year elections as well as primaries. I have experienced great victories for some of my choices, and some heart wrenching defeats. That is how it works in this great country we live in. 

Events of the last few years, and especially the last week, however, have brought into the light an issue that is on my heart. That is a loss of trust in our system. However you view it, and that is not the topic here, it is a reality. When I cast my first ballot close to 45 years ago, I believed that our system was fair and honest. There was an expectation of honesty from our leaders, and from the media that what we heard was truth. What we saw, was real. 

The generation that will be casting their votes for the first time this year do not do so with that assurance. They do not have the guarantee that what they are seeing is what is actually what is real. With AI, with the ability for people to manipulate truth, they can no longer trust their own eyes. We can no longer trust what we hear. Trust has become a commodity of the past.  How do we navigate through a world of sin and lies to find what is true and honest? How do we find what is real amongst all the falsehoods and dark lies?

I believe that to determine what cannot be trusted, we have to determine what can be trusted. This is not a novel problem. From creation until now, man has wrestled with truth. Remember the words that the serpent spoke to Eve? "Ye, hath God said?." The devil aimed to make her question the truth from the start. He intended for her to doubt what was true."

God established few institutions. The family was the first. The church was another. Both were pictures of Him and His people. The bride and God. Some point out government as an institution established by God. But, wait. He only allowed that at the pleading of His people. They had a perfect leader. God Himself. He led through Abraham, then Moses. He spoke through prophets, but that wasn't good enough. They wanted a king, like all the other nations. He relented and let them have a king. Kings. Kings who led them into sin, captivity and downfall. Time and time again. Because that is what man does. We have a way of bringing our pride, our stubbornness, our sin into God's design and destroying it. Or at the very least keep it from being what God designed it to be.

So. Do we abandon government? After all, look at the state of it. What a mess. Really. Is there any good solution. What started out as such a grand idea has degenerated into...well This.

But hold on just a minute. Look at the state of the family. Look at the church. Do we really believe that both of these holy institutions are a true picture of what God designed them to be? An example of God and His bride? Men loving their wives as Christ loved? The church being salt and light to a lost and dying world? When we see both institutions failing to live up to the true purpose that God designed them for, do we abandon them? Do we walk away from either, or both? 

No. We throw ourselves into making our families and homes a light and beacon for the world to see. We work even harder to make our marriages a picture of Christ and His bride. We love our church and love the lost and dying world as He called us to. We are hands and feet to the world He died for.

Then so ought we to do for our weak and failing government. Hold up our politicians in prayer. Vote for the best candidates that we can. Those who will do the best for our country that we believe. 

I chose the image I did for this post because it represents one of my greatest fears. For me to step onto a bridge like that would take trust in something that I truly don't have. That shaky bridge reminds me of what so many are trusting in. We were never intended to trust in human systems as our source of strength, power of confidence.

Psalm 20:7, 8 says, Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.  

I will continue to hope. I will continue to pray. I will always vote my conscience. But my trust will forever remain in the Lord.