Fostering trust in each other

Wherever we live in the world, trust is fundamental to accomplishing many tasks in our daily lives. I find that daily prayer is a strong foundation for trust-filled relationships – prayer that lifts thought to God and affirms everyone’s true identity as God’s perfect, spiritual expression, as Christian Science reveals. It protects and enhances our ability to trust. It also sharpens our discernment.

An experience with a coworker in my previous career really challenged me to find a solid foundation for trust. This person’s untrustworthy actions had jeopardized the timely completion of a project. Another colleague offered a solution, and ultimately, the project came to a timely and successful conclusion. But I found it difficult to forgive the individual who had not been forthright about his part of the project.

So I prayed. I don’t remember now the specific ideas I prayed with, but one day when I was working with this individual and something else he’d done came up, he blurted out, “Well, that’s just the way I am.” I was a little surprised when I responded that I didn’t see him that way. Although I had been praying, I hadn’t felt that complete shift in my thought until right then.

It was a healing moment for us both and led to a discussion of everyone being an idea of God, the reflection of infinite Truth. This person seemed hungry to hear this spiritual and uplifting view of God and His creation. As a result of our conversation, I gave him a copy of “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science. I know that he valued the book because he offered to pay for it a few weeks later when he left the company for another opportunity.

I haven’t seen this person since, so I don’t know what broader impact this experience may have had on him. I do know how it continues to transform my own thought. It showed me how important it is to cherish each individual as an expression of God’s goodness. Right where there seems to be an untrustworthy mortal, there is still an inherent trustworthiness within that can be perceived and brought to light. Recognizing this makes for better relationships, both professional and personal. It heals and uplifts.

Science and Health states, “The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of man’s origin. To begin rightly is to end rightly” (p. 262). Our starting point determines success or failure in any endeavor. If we start from the basis of a flawed mortal, we’re sure to be disappointed; our trust is misplaced at the outset. But starting with acknowledging God as All and entirely good and man as His perfect reflection, we have a firm basis for trust. God’s man, the true, spiritual identity of all of us, is always worthy of trust. This approach also nurtures our ability to discern dishonesty and respond appropriately.

Recently, this quote from “The People’s Idea of God,” a sermon by Mrs. Eddy, really struck me: “... our ideas of divinity form our models of humanity” (p. 14). When I read it, I thought, “Wow! So if I’m seeing something bad about humanity, do I really believe that about God?” I happily answered no. Knowing what is true of God, we can know that whatever we’re seeing that is untrustworthy or bad must be false – not part of man’s true nature and, therefore, not irredeemable, because God is infinite good.

In the Bible, we read of God, “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil” (Habakkuk 1:13). And the first chapter of Genesis tells us that when God beheld His complete creation, He saw that “it was very good” (verse 31).

It takes spiritual sense to discern the good and reject the mortal picture. God has given spiritual sense to everyone, and this spiritual sense is sharpened by our daily prayer, which keeps God’s goodness in the forefront of our thought. We see more clearly and consistently God’s truthful, trustworthy man, enabling us to recognize and disarm wrongdoing – helping to reverse deficits in the world’s economy of trust at the same time.

Adapted from an article published in the March 19, 2018, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.

Inspired to think and pray further about fostering trust around the globe? To explore how people worldwide are navigating times of mistrust and learning to build trust in each other, check out the Monitor’s “Rebuilding trust” project.