Trust vs Belief

I received a message yesterday from a young man. It read as follows,

"I require your assistance... To trust someone is to believe in someone, correct? They are one and the same? Example, if you believe in God, you trust God."

Honestly, I wasn't confident in an answer for him. In one regard trust and belief are synonyms, communicating the same idea. On the other hand, these two words may communicate different aspects of a truth. As my friend Carmen said, "I believe the tightrope walker can safely walk across the tightrope, but it doesn't mean I trust him to carry me across it." I think many of us can relate to that when it comes to spirituality. We believe in the existence of a God or higher power but when it comes to trusting him with our life it's just not that easy.

Trust: An assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something. A dependence on something future or contingent***

Belief: A conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence***

I have found that trust always seems to follow belief. Belief is a decision usually based on some logic or evidence, while trust is a relationship earned through experience and circumstance. We can even believe that God is good but trusting in his goodness when the circumstances in our life say otherwise is much harder. When the brown stuff hits the fan our trust in his goodness is either stretched and grown or broken and shattered--sometimes both (ie Peter's betrayal of Jesus and Jesus' restoration of Peter).

I am meeting with this young man this afternoon. I am really excited to continue this conversation with him. I will update you later tonight.

~~~~Update 4:00pm August 4th, 2009~~~~

So we had a fun afternoon eating Subway and hanging out at Toy Traders and Willow Video. We talked a little bit about Trust and Belief. To sum up: It's complicated! They are the same but different.

***sourced from Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary