The very next day I read a chapter in Klaus Issler and J.P. Moreland's book, The Lost Art of Happiness. The chapter is entitled, "Cultivating Spiritual Friendships." Issler wrote the book, Wasting Time With God: Cultivating Friendship with God. In that book Issler made the point that our friendships with humans help us cultivate a friendship with God.
Issler referred to himself as "recovering loner." (I wonder if that phrase might bother some people. Is it a bad thing to be a loner??)
Let me quote Issler here (p. 180)
I came to the point that I realized a haunting truth: If I can't depend on a few trusted others whom I can see, what makes me so sure that I can really rely on God , whom I cannot see? Might an adaptation of I John 4: 20 fit here? "If we say we depend on God yet can't depend on a fellow believer, we are liars." Lately, I've seen that life is a school for learning how to have faith in others and not depend on ourselves alone. God actually made us to function and flourish by mutual dependence on spiritual friends. From early on, our experiences can help us learn how to depend on others, to grow our "trust" muscles--ultimately, so we can deepen our trust and reliance on God.
Later in that chapter Issler wrote how the model of our relationships is the Triune God Himself. I had one of those "ah ha" moments reading this chapter. We so often hear people of all different belief systems quote the Bible although they might not acknowledge their source: "God is love" (I John 4: 8). This little phrase is not in context or in reality a statement making God out to be a feeling. This is a statement about God's Triune nature. Love cannot be expressed in a lone way. I had wondered about the idea: Did God have to create humans in His image to complete Himself? Did He need humans to express love?
Understanding God in Trinity I realized, He did not need us to be Lerfect love. God truly is love because "the love relationships within the Trinity set the tone and benchmark for all our relationships" (182, Issler).
Trust is not an easy concept to understand and exercise. Hebrews 11: 1 says, "Without faith, it is impossible to please God." In a recent course on The Gospel, the teacher (Bill Tell) said, "What if we woke up in the morning and instead of saying, 'What can I do to please God today....but rather, how can I trust You today?'" I think we have been trained to think of things to do to please God when what He wants is our trust.
As Klaus Issler wrote, we can learn to trust God whom we cannot see by trusting people who we can see. There is a huge risk, though, with people. People can disappoint and betray. I believe there are people out there whom we can trust and in those relationships we can learn more how we can trust God.
