Wild Trust

John 5:30-47

44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? (ESV)

⁴⁴ How can you trust? You’re busy collecting praise from each other, instead of seeking praise from God only. (CJB)

“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”— (Rabbi Rami Shapiro paraphrasing Rabbi Tarfon in Pirkei Avot)

“Begin your inquiry with something about which you have no doubt.” — (Pasanna)

Oh, it’s all a marvelous mish-mash right now!

Grief, loneliness, and praise-seeking—

The lack of obligation, and the absence of freedom—

Not to mention the nuances of translation— How can there be such an enormous and profound difference between, “from the only God” and, “from God only” ? Or between, “How can you believe?” and, “How can you trust?” ?

Oh yes, and what a wonderful word “daunted” is! It comes from French, via Latin: “domitare” derived from “domare”— “to tame.” Its synonyms include “abashed” and “cowed”; as well as “unnerved” and “rattled”.

But look at this: What if we changed the quote to “Do not be ‘tamed’ by the enormity of the world’s grief”? Think about it. Well, then, how do we keep from being tamed? I found a clue in the word “Trust”. I also found another clue in the opposite of the word ‘tamed’, which is — “Wild.”

Wild Trust, that’s what we need!  Who even thinks about dusty obligations when we go wild with trust? Who could even think to abandon the work when we are so wildly gleeful in our trusting?  How do we dare to go about doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly?  If we have wild trust, we don’t even need to think about it because, guess what? It just happens!

No doubt here!

Trust is never tame!

Don’t try to scuttle the awful misery of the world—

Climb on board, cut the towline, 

and head straight for the rapids—

Yeehaa!