Faith in the Workplace

In Who Can You Trust? you write that the basis of all trust is the trustworthiness of God. In such a violent world, why do you find God trustworthy?

First, because I've found Him trustworthy in my own life across so many years. Also, I see Him being trustworthy in history. Particularly, the history of the church, but also secular history as well.

For example, I think the collapse of communism is a contemporary illustration of the trustworthiness of God. I think the collapse of Hitler was an illustration.

We find the Scriptures trustworthy in our own lives and in the life of the church. And, as I wrote in the book, nature and the moral order testify as well to God's trustworthiness. I think all of these are tremendously convincing.

Long term, I think God's trustworthiness will be proven once again in today's terrorist crisis, although none of us know just how. That's the place where all of us are called upon today to trust that evil will not prevail.

In your times of prayer, you think over how your own personal history fits into God's larger plan for the world. Can you explain more about what you mean?

Really, it's a review of all the desperation periods in my life. And the vividness with which my lack of trust convinced me that there was no possible way out of those situations. I remember how I was utterly convinced that these incidents would haunt me the rest of my life and wreck everything that had been accomplished to date. As I review those and the panic that assaulted me at those times, I see how God was in control all along. These things, having grown dim and distant, are now almost "joyous" memories. That encourages me to trust God in the present tensions, whether in my own life or in relation to the world scene.

If the world is deeply flawed by sin, why should we trust others?

Because they are created in the image of God. We trust God in others, and He alone is completely trustworthy. Trusting God in others is essential for healthy human relationships. In some mysterious way, God is at work in everyone despite our fallen condition. Knowing this allows us to be predisposed to trust. Unless we do so, we can never enjoy the love of God that He ministers to us through others.

There's also a healthy mistrust, you say. How do you parse the trust versus mistrust factor when you evaluate someone's character? Say in a business situation?

First, you listen very carefully. You observe very carefully. And you watch body language.

If it's something that involves future consequences in terms of the relationship, take enough time to research the matter at hand and the person's background as thoroughly as possible. I've made a lot of mistakes by not taking that time.

In the end, you have to trust the reasonable and intuitive impressions to which you've come. But at least you've done your homework. Life consists in the risks of making these assessments.

While my belief in people is founded upon God's trustworthiness, my mistrust is grounded in my awareness of my own capacity for deceit. "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it?" asks the Scriptures (Jer. 17:19 (KVJ). I don't have full self-knowledge, but I pray, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me" (Psalm 139:23-24) KJV.

The warp and woof of knowing God's trustworthiness on the one hand and my own capacity for failure and deceit on the other goes into very practical considerations of who might be a reliable home builder, who should I trust for financial advice, who is a true friend.

Many of the voices in our society tell us that the thing we need to do is find out what we want and then go after it. But isn't knowing our own minds one of the hardest things to trust? Do we know what's truly in our own best interests?

No, we really don't. Which is why it's so important to pray to know and do God's will. And to consider prayerfully how God is at work in our own will and how He might not be. We need to have a healthy mistrust of ourselves. One of my friends says, "We Americans live in a state of confused innocence." I think that's a terrific phrase, for we believe ourselves innocent when none of us are. "There is none righteous, no, not one," the Bible says.

You've introduced a concept called JO-AP, which stands for the Judas-Oedipus-Adam-Pharisee bent in all of us. Can you summarize what this means and why you use the concept?

JO-AP is a lighter way of speaking of what theologians call "total depravity." The whole modernist movement proposes man is basically good and evil is not a reality. World War I, World War II, communism, fascism, and now terrorism—we continue to have these assaults on believing rationally in the inherent goodness of humankind. I heard PBS' Jim Lehrer the other night reporting on the recent terrorist atrocities in Breslan, Russia. He said, "It almost makes you believe in original sin." Well, how can you not believe in it?

When you lose the transcendent basis for your worldview, it just seems to me like you stand naked in the face of the hurricanes of reality. How can you put together the goodness of humanity with the inhumanity of Breslan? Where could that come from but the pit of hell?