Trust is supposed to be one of those “happy feelings” or good vibes. It’s a term that gets thrown around easily. I know I am guilty of the, “just trust me…” approach.
What do you mean trusting can hurt?
There are many stories and quotes about pain making people stronger or building character. One of my favorite quotes is from Batman Begins: “Why do we fall down? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”
But doesn’t it sometimes feel like enough is enough? We think we go through things that build us up, so we pick ourselves up, but then comes something else. You think you might be there, that you are finally walking on the greener grass, but there is always something more to learn.
One of those things is trust. Trusting God and others can hurt. Not because it actually may hurt, or create hurt in the way of doing something insensitive, but because it is uncomfortable. It can create a place where we don’t want to go mentally or emotionally, but we must in order to trust.
I have written in the past about my divorce and life as a single dad, but the last couple years have brought much more into my life than that. God brought a special girl back into my life who I hadn’t seen in more than 11 years. What started as friendship turned into much more over two years. During that time, I had to trust her, trust in my abilities to love another, trust emotions, and trust the process of being with someone again. It was hard! It was what I wanted, but that doesn’t mean that it came easily. I had to question myself, deal with uncomfortable fears, and push past the hurt that can resurface in those places.
In the end, the hope that trust produces is worth the discomfort. We truly do get to pick ourselves back up, but when you do it through trust in God or in someone else, there is a hand extended to help you get back up. That is the HOPE that comforts us.