Finding "Trust"

Many times the further you get away from a subject you are anxious or thinking about, the closer you can stumble on an answer. Our Outside Church Walls (OCW) group for the last two meetings has talked about core values and principles for a faithful vital 21st century Episcopal Church in Western Washington.

My children had made plans during this past year to gather the family and whisk me away in July to Trout Haven Resort at Wallowa Lake in Northeast Oregon for a special birthday celebration. Then, one of my granddaughters decided that Grandpa’s birthday celebration would be a good wedding date for her and her fiancee`. So, as you well know, these things can grow a little bit over time and a special day becomes an “extra special day,” a week, two, three, and needless to say I did not make our July 25th meeting. I was thinking about it, maybe not full time but part time, amidst all the love and activity of birthday, wedding, and family.

Reading my Forward Day by Day (FDxD), as I have for 40+ years, on my birthday July 10th prayers were asked for the Diocese of Eastern Oregon, a Missionary District when my wife & I met for the first time in 1946-47 at Ascension Church Camp, Cove, OR. If you still have your July copy of FDxD, grab it and reflect with me.

The author for July was Frank Wade, an Episcopal Priest from West Virginia, with a long pastorate at St. Albans, Washington D.C., then as interim Dean at Washington National Cathedral. He is Adjudent Faculty at Virginia Theological Seminary and has been a frequent contributor to FDxD over the years. While I was fixed on this month for many readings it was his treatment of Jesus’ life through the gospel of Matthew that caught my attention. From July 1-31, with the exception of July 22nd, he went to John 20:18 and Mary Magdalene telling the Disciples “I have seen the Lord.”

On July 1, Matthew 21:23, he speaks about authority and the fact that we live in a fallen world where “TRUST” must be carefully placed. As I walked with him and Jesus through the month it wasn’t until we were back in the Blue Mountains out of Pendleton, OR in the quiet and serene (although by this time a little smokey) with just my wife that a light came on! July 15 Matthew 25:23, “you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things.”

“TRUST”- How is it built, or more often, how is “TRUST” rebuilt. The Parable of Talents provides one of the clearest answers.

1. Trust cannot be earned without first being given.
2. Trust is built gradually. It takes time as well as generous vulnerability.
3. Trust is delicate, essential to life, slowly built, easily damaged, rebuilt with difficulty, and well worth pursuing. Amen!

Read on through July 31 and thank Jesus, the Gospel of Matthew, Scott Gunn & FDxD, and Frank Wade for revealing that TRUST must be a core principle in our OCW search for a faithful and vital 21st century Episcopal Church in Western Washington.


God Bless,
Chuck