EXPRESSIONS OF FAITH
Where to place your trust
By Murray Hohns
What can we trust in times like these? Whom can we trust? We are bombarded by our media and their focus on what our leaders know, knew and should have known. Election Day is months away, and many of us already are weary of hearing accusations of lies and cover-ups at every turn.
Our political leaders are experts in attacking each other and, once elected, they seemingly heap law upon law in a futile attempt to solve what they perceive to be our problems. Lawmakers too often inflict things they cannot suffer on the rest of us. Humans are unique living beings in that we alone can make rules. Can we trust our politicians?
I recently listened to interviews of people being asked what they trusted when they faced a decision. Most said they trusted their heart or inner being to help them decide the right thing to do. Alas, Scripture tells us that the heart or inner being is deceitful above all else — untrustworthy and desperately wicked. We should not trust ourselves or our feelings.
Some said they relied on science and its principles to make decisions. And surely scientific thought has some value but if, for instance, we trust in the science of evolution, we rely on flux since nothing is constant, and all we know is changing into something that we do not know. If evolution is true, there is no such thing as a living thing. If evolution is true, we are on our way to being something better or worse than what we now appear to be. If we are evolving into something better or good, then we are on our way to being God; if the opposite is true, we are on our way to peril.
If there is no good or evil, we are evolving from nothing into something that doesn't matter, a big neutral. We surely cannot trust evolution. Science may help us in some situations, but there is no scientific solution for our hurts. Pills developed in a laboratory may mask ills, but they are still there.
One man said he relied on his own ability in times when it was necessary to trust something. I hoped that he was able far beyond the norm but, even so, how able can one man be? I have made so many mistakes in my life that I dare not trust myself.
Why do we need something to trust? The answers enfold each other: First, we all know that things are not the way they are supposed to be and, secondly, we all want them to be the way they should be.
Scripture tells us this intended state of affairs is called God's Shalom, a place where everything flourishes, all is wholesome, and everything and everyone is filled with delight. We were created for Shalom, to doubt ourselves and to trust in our creator. Instead our world tells us to trust in ourselves, to doubt our creator. In so doing, we trash Shalom. We are on the wrong path. We have trusted the wrong guide.
Our only hope is to reverse our direction, to trust in God and to follow him. If we do, we shall experience his Shalom, and your life will have value and you will be valued.
H. Murray Hohns of Makiki is a retired engineer and an associate pastor at New Hope Christian Fellowship.
