2022 was a difficult year and 2023 is unlikely to be any easier. But we need not despair. We can trust in God. This gives strength and frees us to shape our lives and the world.
By Ulrich Waschki
When Angela Merkel was asked in an interview with the newspaper “Die Zeit” a year after the end of her chancellorship whether she was “blessed with a certain fearlessness”, she replied: “Trust in God, I would say, or optimism, yes.” Merkel’s optimism, which culminated in the sentence “We can do it,” was not just a political strategy, but apparently also an expression of her inner life. Trust in God helps through life; it helps to get through difficult times.
Every life and every interaction requires trust. After all, not all of human existence can be packed into contracts and secured watertight in order to be prepared for all eventualities. Children need to be able to trust that their parents mean well by them. Spouses must be able to trust in each other’s fidelity, otherwise the marriage will fail. And you also need trust in business life. The principle of the honorable businessman expresses this.
The best way to learn trust is in childhood, through bonding with your parents. A mortgage for life if that trust is destroyed. Luckily, you can practice and learn to trust later on. Trust can be abused. One can lose it. Retrieving it is difficult. Trust is what makes life possible in the first place. Without trust, we would be busy all day protecting ourselves from possible dangers, pitfalls, scams and attacks.
Much of what is true of trust between people is also true of trust in God. Angela Merkel expresses it indirectly: trust in God helps to shape life and also to cope with difficult tasks.
Where has God worked in my life?
So trust in God could be the attitude for the beginning of the year. An attitude that helps in these times of overlapping crises. Trust is the opposite of fear. It protects us from fear and despair dominating us as we look at the world and paralyzing us to the point of inaction. And you can also learn to trust God. By looking at your own life and trying to interpret that life in the presence of God: Where has God worked in my life? Where did I meet him today? Or by looking at witnesses of faith who report on this trust.
Trusting God does not mean leaving everything to Him. It frees us to recognize our own responsibility and to actively shape our lives and the world. If we trust God, we should live so that he can trust us too. That we use our talents and our responsibility properly and preserve his creation – for the benefit of all people.
