Flashes of Trust
Posted by: Pastor Dave Lee | Friday October 30, 2009
I was working on my sermon at a local Starbucks while waiting for my daughter to get out of her preschool program. All the tables were filled so I took a seat at the windowside bar area. There was one other person sitting next to me - a woman who was working pretty intensely on some stuff.
I had all my stuff laid out on the table but had to run to the bathroom so I asked her to watch my stuff. As I walked to the bathroom I wondered to myself how I coud be so confident she could be trusted. After all, my beloved MacBook Pro was lying untethered on the table. Would she really be watchful? Would she defend my stuff if someone started snooping around? How did I assess her trustworthiness just with a glance? Were there others in the place whom I wouldn't have trusted so instinctively?
All interesting questions, but in the end I realized I'd just decided to trust her. I was appealing to what I hoped was a basic sense of goodness. And no, I don't believe theologically that mankind is basically good - we are morally corrupted. But I do believe that even in our fallen state, many people remain capable of doing what is right.
To my surprise, when I returned to my seat, she said, "As long as you're here, let me run ot the bathroom as well." And without even waiting to hear my response she left for the restroom fully trusting me with her stuff (pictured here). Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it felt like we had this unspoken agreement that for the couple hours we were here, we'd formed a little bond of trust with very defined boundaries that served our needs while we worked here. It makes me realize that we all come hardwired with a need to live in community and trust others, if only for an hour or two in a coffee shop.
Comments
— Jeong · Mar 22, 04:36 PM · #