Trust

On my way back from school last Wednesday, I picked up a package quarter way the journey back home. I got the change and gave it all to the boda boda man.

(Those who are unfamiliar with that term, it simply means a taxi but on a motorbike. I paid him in advance and he went pale, bursting with sarcastic laughter.)

He then asked, “Why would you pay me now? What if I do not make it to the end of the trip? What if something happens?”

I coldly told him, “NOTHING WILL. I TRUST you.”

He seemed in awe, of a young man who’d choose to let money go just like that and trust a stranger to deliver him up to his destination.

This provoked a fruitful conversation from him as we moved.

He drove me ever so gently, taking me farther than I thought he would. He then remarked; that my trust had challenged him.

It also provoked him to open up to me, ensuring that I enjoyed every part of the journey whilst sharing intriguing tales.

After my arrival, that’s when God applied the whole scene to Himself.

“What would happen if men trusted me like that?”

“What would?” I asked

He said, “You see, though it is the responsibility of the subject to give the trust, its end is to empower the object it’s being given to. The rider was empowered and encouraged to convey you with extreme care, because, in a way, he seemed to owe you. When men give me their trust, by default, I am put in a position of obligation, owing them some manner of goodness, or saving in return.

…I can’t put them to shame, like I would not Abednego and his gang. For if I do, then I’d be no different from evil men (yet even my holiness can’t permit me to) and if that stranger delivered you safely, but I fail to, then we can as well say men are better than I, which sounds wrong altogether.

…Remembering Abednego however, he and his brothers went radical. They said even if I rescued them not… they would still not bow. Now that provoked me. It teaches that even if the boda failed to deliver you at your expected destination, you still played your part — paying — and he failed to accomplish his duty. Abednego trusted that I’d save, but in the event that I would not, He still did what He was meant to. I therefore take that place as well, choosing rather to be he that never fails to play my part, than to be the thief.

…It’s also possible for a person to take the ride and disappear before paying the boda which will affect the boda person, to either compartmentalize all passengers as not worthy of trust, promise to have revenge when he sees the passenger next time, or demand the next one to pay before the ride commences.

…Thankfully I am God, and to every being, I trust individually even if someone else ‘didn’t pay me’. I am reminded of John. (John is my boda guy who picks me from home and takes me to school or town for business) You and John have a relationship such that even if you are short of money, he knows where you stay, and he knows you will pay him later…

…In a nutshell, two things: trust relieves the giver of it, and empowers the receiver of it to act in favor reciprocally.

Trust shall also be tested by earth quakes, but one must have their foundations properly set to stand the shakings. One must draw from past experiences to sustain a friendship. If the friend that bails you out sometimes, fails to pick up this time, you are tempted to think they are weary of helping out.

You yourself have called John sometimes and he hasn’t showed up to pick you. That didn’t mean he was fed up of you as a customer. Perhaps he was on another errand.

Life will cause you to doubt me sometimes. Perhaps you too might call and think I am away on vacation. I’m not a man to. And unfortunately, your Eliphaz, Bildad, & Zophar, will condemn you. Your own wife might encourage you ‘to curse me and die’, but I do pray, that when the tests come, like Job you’ll say, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in him.”

Of course I’m sure you’ve felt slain by me in one way or another. But, in me you live and move and have your being. The plans I have for you are those of prosperity. Not of evil! I’m imploring, no—asking from the bottom of my heart, that if I am that boda, decide in advance once and for all to ‘pay your trust to me’ just like I decided to love you recklessly in advance even while you were yet a sinner. Knowing that draws you closer unto me, and I having your trust will draw me closer to you.

Draw from past experiences faith that your trust in me, just like it didn’t fail that time . . . won’t fail this time!”

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Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.