Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5 NLT)
If you found your spouse cheating, would ever trust him again? How would your relationship be after you discover this evidence? Would you keep an employee in an office if you found him stealing from the company? Would you give him a benefit of doubt and keep him around?
If you did, how would you relate with that individual from that point onward? If the evidence dictates that someone has a criminal record, and he claims to have changed, can we trust him?
It is said that: TRUST IS LIKE A GLASS, ONCE IT IS BROKEN, IT WILL NEVER BE THE SAME.
This is so because of how human trust is born and exercised.
Human Trust is EVIDENCE-BORN: Before people trust you, you must prove you are reliable and trustworthy. Some will try and test your trust by tempting you unknowingly. Some will set you up and once you pass the test then trust is born.
Human Trust is EVIDENCE-BASED: The trust that people will award you will depend on your performance. People will live with you and give their all once they know you can be trusted. Their trust will be founded and based on what you do.
This is our definition of TRUST and this how we appreciate it. The new company you applied to needs a recommendation letter from your former employers. Civil leadership offices require a vetting committee that goes as far as where the candidate is born to get to know who they are before they are installed in a public office.
Evidence is an essential element for trust. Here are three scenarios that form and frame human trust:
Weak people trust stronger people and their trust is based on the evidence that they are weak and those they trust are stronger. A child hides behind a parent when she sees a dog because she knows her parent is strong.
However, she has no evidence that the parent has no phobia for dogs too. Her evidence is restricted to the fact that her parent is bigger in size than the dog. The problem here is that: Trust is based on half-information evidence.
A reporter once asked Mrs Einstein if she understood the theory of relativity. She replied,
No, but I know Albert and he can be trusted.
The evidence this woman gave had nothing to do with how right the Theory of Relativity was. She knew nothing about the theory of relativity. Her evidence was the scientist behind what she didn’t understand.
While this sounds like a good emotional foundation to lay trust upon, it has serious repercussions on the durability of the product. We cannot subject the theory of relativity to the personality of Albert Einstein, for whether Einstein pays his bills or not, it doesn’t affect the scientific truth of the theory. The problem here is that:
Trust here is based on performer evidence (who is he) and not on performance (what is he doing).
Perhaps you have heard the saying:
Better the DEVIL you know, than the ANGEL you have never seen.
It is not that the devil is any good, but that he is obvious and predictable. What makes the angel dangerous here is the unpredictability. Evidence–based trust is when people are able to predict what other people will do and what situations will occur. Once people cannot predict what you will do, they cannot trust you.
The problem here is that: Something is not true and therefore cannot be trusted because you don’t know it and it is beyond your forecast.
The logic of HUMAN TRUST is that it should be EARNED, not GIVEN. But should TRUST be EARNED or GIVEN? If it is EARNED, is it TRUST anymore?
If trust is both evidence born and based, should our confidence exclusively be placed in the known and never in the unknown? Can any project, relationship, or activity succeed without the aspect of trust?
We always board buses and planes without the evidence of the sobriety of the drivers and pilots. We eat from restaurants food which we never participated in preparing it. This is not a matter of risking but Trust. It is Trust Given and not Trust Earned.
Evidential Trust is not trust at all for two reasons:
1. Many people who are trusted by others have information (evidence) that those who trust them with their lives do not have. So the honest trust from others is based on evidence born from Ignorance (what they don’t know) or deception (what they have been made to know).
I rather not seek evidence and just trust you anyway, than end up being ignorant or deceived.
Proverbs 3:5 reminds us that the Evidence of OUR OWN UNDERSTANDING should not be based on.
2. The second one is a logical one. If you have evidence, you don’t have to TRUST. You cannot say am trusting something I know. You just know, period. There is no need for trust once you have all the details.
So people who seek evidence before they trust, are wrong to consider it to be trust after they have all the evidence.
The Bible says in Hebrews 11:1 that:
Now TRUST is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
You need to resolve to TRUST or continue with the frustration of the delusion of EVIDENCE.
I am not saying that ‘EVIDENCE’ is bad, not at all. What am saying is that with TRUST, we are left with two options, we either TRUST or not.
If we want to really understand things, we need to exercise TRUST around what we seek to know.
God bless you, I invoke TRUTH, REASON and FAITH.
Pr. ITM WHITE
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS Well of Worship Ministries (John 4:24)
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 