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Happiness and Trust

One of the characteristics of childhood is happiness. Little children are amazingly resilient. They are able to withstand all kinds of difficulties, particularly if their parents model calm and equanimity in the face of those problems. Families can be uprooted by circumstances and forced to move to a new city, into a new environment, sometimes into a new culture, and the kids often adjust better than their parents. They make new friends and find a place in the new social order long before their parents do.

One of the things that makes this possible is trust. If the little ones know that the adults in their lives are trustworthy and will continue to love and care for them no matter what, it doesn’t matter much what life throws at them. Of course, moments of crisis, periods of distress may afflict them, but overall, these trusting little children handle life without too much trouble as long as they have someone they can count on.

The Bible brings this into the adult world and the spiritual realm. Jesus challenged the people of His day by telling them that unless they were converted and became as little children, they would by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. (See Matthew 18:3) There are several ways in which little children are more spiritually fit for blessing than the adults who are responsible for them. Not the least of these ways is the issue of faith. Children believe so much more easily than adults. They don’t have the need to intellectually digest truth before they can swallow it. They swallow first, then learn it.

There are three verses in the book of Psalms which underscore the importance of trust in happiness:

These three quotations force us to consider that our level of happiness is affected by our ability to trust. Perhaps you feel that you can’t afford to trust. You’ve been taken advantage of, perhaps abused, maybe ripped off, or had some other negative experiences when you trusted someone. The problem is not the act of trust, but the lack of trustworthiness of the person you trusted. It is always important to consider the one you trust. What those three verses from the Psalms do is to point us consistently to God as the One we can trust.

We can trust Him because of who He is. He made us. He looks on us with the deepest positive regard we can imagine. He loves us. He has only our good in view.

We can also trust Him because of what He has done for us. Because He made us and loves us, He stepped into time to interrupt our headlong rush to destruction. Because of our sin, we were headed away from God. But God wrapped Himself in flesh and, as the man Jesus, intercepted us on the path we were on and provided an alternative. At the cross, Jesus paid the price for us to get off the toll road to eternal death and get reoriented on the path to eternal life. You owe it to yourself to consider His claims. Your happiness depends on it.

Happy people trust in God.

Ron Hughes
© October 2007