Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Trust and Forgiveness

So, I've been thinking a lot about trust and forgiveness and how tightly tied together they are.  Actually, I've had this discussion with a friend of mine on multiple occasions, but was reminded of it again while listening to a couple of radio announcers recently.  One said that if you forgive someone, then you should immediately be able to trust them again; the idea being that if you've truly forgiven them, then trusting them should be second-nature.  The other said just because you forgive someone doesn't mean you're going to trust them again right away; at least not in the area in which you forgave them.  I fall in line with the forgive, but don't necessarily trust right away group.  I believe that just because you forgive someone for whatever wrong transpired, doesn't mean that you forget what happened.  Do you hold it over them?  No.  Would you forget whatever happened and trust them right away in the same area?  I wouldn't.  Maybe I'm just skeptical or cynical, but, then again, maybe I'm realistic and rational.  I believe that people can change, I just don't think many people do.  It's much easier to keep asking for forgiveness than it is to actively change your personality or your behavior.  

Now to make this more interesting...what is God's take on this?  Let's look at this from the standpoint that God readily forgives us of any and all wrongs that we commit against Him when we ask for forgiveness with a sincere heart.  Does he trust us to not make the same mistakes, or does he call us to live our lives differently once he's forgiven us?  And, is there a difference?  Hmmm....  What's your take?

1 comment:

  1. This is a very interesting ponderment Cindy! There have been some discussions about forgiveness floating around down here recently, so this adds another dimension to it. First of all, I found myself having to define what it means to trust someone...and I think for me it is the belief that a person has my best interest in mind. That doesn't mean that they wont ever make me feel hurt, but that I know they care. That said, I believe that trust and forgiveness certainly often come hand in hand, but are not necessarily always intertwined....more later

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