Anchored in Virtue: Faith/ Trust

For the past two days I've reflected on what to write about today. I sifted through a couple of ideas, but nothing really stuck out to me. Then during adoration I kept noticing the word "faith" in all the Bible stories I was reading. I said to myself, "God, please, please don't let 'faith' be the word of the day. I'm going to look like the biggest in-your-face Catholic on the internet if I make 'faith' the word of the day." However, God was pretty adamant, and I don't mess with that kind of serendipity. On wards-

What is faith? What about trust?

After reflecting on this one, I've decided that faith is nearly synonymous with trust. Religiously, faith reflects a belief in something/ someone we can't sense, but who plays a key role in our religious journey. For example, I have never met Jesus, but I try my best to trust in Him and retain my faith.

With this said, I have found one key difference between faith and trust: I believe we are called to have faith in everyone's goodness at heart and ability to further improve, but I don't believe we should trust everyone. The idiom "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me," puts trust in perspective for me. (Remember the old "God helps those who help themselves" from last week?) While it is unsafe to trust everyone we see, it is just to have faith in their ability to succeed. Therefore, regarding human-to-human interaction, faith and trust should be partially separated; however, in human-to-God interaction, faith and trust are intricately tied.

What leads us from trusting in God?

I believe our own logical questioning leads us from trusting God sometimes. Granted, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Buddha says, "Doubt everything. Find your own light," (Source). I think the more we question, the deeper our faith is when we return to it. This is at least what I've found in my personal experience. I completely support questions like "Who is God?" "Is He different in other faiths? Why or why not?", "Is original sin a reality?", "What are we saying when we proclaim 'one baptism for the forgiveness of sins'?", "How can there be a God with hunger and pain in the world?" (see the post on temperance), and "How accurate is the Bible?" If we never ask, we will never discover. If we never ask, we will consistently fall to a faith without reason. St. Thomas Aquinas battled with this concept of faith without reason throughout his journey with the Summa Theologia, which is a wonderful source for potential answers to religious questioning. I've only read bits and pieces, but it is absolutely wonderful from what I have read. I have also read portions of C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity", which answered a bunch of my questions and deepened my faith. Furthermore, although our questioning often leads to confusion, if we are persistent in our reflection, the answers we develop will deeply solidify our faith and trust in God.

Our logical questioning does not solely contribute to our lack of trust in God; our pride also penetrates our trust. We live in a world where we are expected to hold our own burdens and reach our own goals. Although we have friends, we take our tests and interviews individually in the end. After a while our pride inflates as our accomplishments mount. But what about the stress? If we trust God to help us carry the load, not only will we increase our humility, but we will also find a greater sense of peace in our work. When we invite Christ to take part in our work, our relationship with Him increases due to the trust that results from our successes.

Ways to grow in trust and faith this week:

Dare to ask God those looming questions in your head! Sometimes it helps me to write down the progression of my logic as I reflect or talk to a friend about it so that the conversation can lead to a deeper conclusion.
Invite God into your work-routine through prayer.
Read sources like the Bible and those listed in the blog post. Reading about Jesus's wisdom helps me to trust Him more and increases my belief in His existence.
Participate in charity events. When we see the fruits of our labor with Christ, we can learn to trust Him.
Meditate on times of weakness and strength in your faith. Ask God for support and guidance.

Reflection questions:

Why do we trust God?

When have we fallen from our faith? Why?

Did we get back on track? How so? For what purpose?

Further resources:

"How Great is Our God"

Remember that you are so blessed and loved!