Sometimes we hear horrific stories of human brutality.
One such case is the story reported in the Age Newspaper of a man who was imprisoned, tortured and humiliated over a twenty-four hour period. The man was quoted as saying that he would ‘probably never trust them (humans) as collective again’. I can understand that.
In the Church we talk about forgiveness a lot. Forgiveness is important as it deals with our bitterness and stops us from being eaten up by it. But we don’t talk as much about being unable to trust even though we have forgiven.
Being untrusting is a self-protection mechanism. A person may forgive their parter’s infidelity, but can they ever trust them in the same way again? An employee may forgive a bullying supervisor but could they ever trust them enough to work for them again? A person may forgive their abuser but to expect them to trust them or the organisation they represent is unrealistic.
Trust needs building and earning. My prayer for this person who was treated so badly is that he will encounter some people who will be genuine, who will respect him and who will prove themselves trustworthy. It makes me think about who I am to people today. I can’t control whether others are trustworthy or not , but I can control how I behave.