“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. ² There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? ³ When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. ⁴ And you know the way to where I am going.”⁵ “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” John 14:1-6

So we have been talking about the phrase “OK, Boomer”, and digging deeper into the reasons for why people from different generations do not always agree with one another. At first we were looking at why people resist change – and one of the reasons we were examining revolved around trust. Trust in necessary in all relationships – our trust in G-d – our trust in each other. And, so we are examining different aspects of trust. So we are on reason two you can follow to help you to trust again after a painful experience.

1. Learn To Trust Your Choices and Decisions – so after deciding to allow yourself to be vulnerable, it is time to learn to trust – trust your decisions and your relationships, and trust G-d to always be there in your decisions, your relationships and your decisions about faith. Too many people give up their trust in G-d because they believe G-d does not give them what they want, or ask. The question we need to ask is not “G-d what have you given me lately?” – instead we should be saying “G-d thank you for all the blessings you have given me today.” A good exercise to try if you want to rebuild trust in yourself is to look at all the decisions you have made that have had positive outcomes – decisions around financial choices, career choices, health choices, and good friendship choices – make a list and remind yourself how you see G-d in these decisions. If you do not see G-d in your decisions and your choices, then perhaps you need to re-examine your decision making processes.

In our lesson today, Jesus tells his disciples: “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. ² There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?” Jesus promises his presence not only in our faith, but in our decisions, and in our lives – including our eternal lives. But that requires that we put our trust in him. This is all Jesus asks – we are to trust G-d, which leads to trusting Jesus. Everything else that seeks our loyalty and trust will end up being nothing less than sinking sand – for Christ is the solid rock upon which we stand.

Pastor Dave

“Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ² “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.” ³ He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? ⁴ For God said,  ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ ⁵ But you say that whoever tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,’ then that person need not honor the father. ⁶ So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. ⁷ You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:

⁸ ‘This people honors me with their lips,  but their hearts are far from me; ⁹ in vain do they worship me,  teaching human precepts as doctrines.’” Matthew 15:1-9

We are talking about the phrase “OK, Boomer”, and digging deeper into the reasons for why people from different generations do not always agree with one another. And, we are asking the question: “Why do people resist change?” Well, here is the last of our possible reasons:

4. People lack trust in the one making changes

When people are asked to make changes in their lives, they seek someone or something they can trust to guide them, support them, and help them maintain some sense of stasis. Therefore, it is necessary for any leader to build trust over a period of time. Building trust with people is so important.

If trust is not built, then mistrust is the default response and mistrust often becomes evident in a resistance to change. So what can people do when trust has been lost? How do we learn to trust again. Well, the first thing to remember is that you will get hurt again someday. Trusting is a decision you must make knowing there are never any guarantees that you won’t feel this way again in the future. So if we are to learn to trust again, I am going to talk about some tips you can follow to help you choose to trust people and to trust change.

1. Embrace Vulnerability: Vulnerability is one of our greatest strengths as humans – and that seems counter-intuitive. But it is true. If we don’t put ourselves out there and take risks, well, then we risk missing out on life as well. Life is messy, but it has to be if life will be worth living. Building protective walls to hide behind – emotionally speaking – may sound like a good idea, but once we put up walls, those walls can be hard to break down. Opening up to others, even if it is in just some little ways, will eventually allow you to learn to trust your vulnerability. When it comes to the many religious leaders we may read about, there hasn’t been anyone like Jesus (except perhaps the Buddha) who showed his humanness and his vulnerabilities. We know through scripture that Jesus wept, Jesus told sarcastic stories, and Jesus suffered. Because he was vulnerable to the wickedness of this world, we know he was truly human, and truly divine.

We must become vulnerable if we are to fully trust Jesus – because our trust and faith requires letting go of control, and putting our hearts and our fate into G-d’s hands. Yes, life is messy, but with Jesus in control, our futures are secured no matter how much we mess things up.

Pastor Dave