Is Trust without Forgiveness Possible? ...

Friday, Nov 9, 2012. We have talked about trust, and that trust is very important if you want to achieve anything. But humans fail, humans make mistakes and, also, humans are different and tend to approach problems in different ways. How can you get all this together? How can trust be achieved? Is it possible to keep trust active without forgiveness?

Conflicts and Solutions …

When you are in an environment with complex tasks, there will be different choices and approaches by different people. One will be more focused, another more open. One wants to save, the other wants to spend. One might want to increase income, the other to cut spending. Often, it is not easy to achieve a joint strategy in some organization - or in your family. And whenever people act, there might be conflicts arising from the differences.

In large organizations, there are often different leaders trying to follow their particular directions. Of course, there will be a general strategy, but even within that the diversity might be large. Different goals need to be achieved with limited resources. And different divisions have to make choices … which might not fit completely to those of the other divisions. Conflicts are natural, and need to be resolved.

If everyone insists on their right, - if everyone just wants to do what he thinks helps his unit most, then the organization will get big problems soon. How can trust be established when the only thing you can trust is that people will be egoistic. On the other hand - when you only work for others, you will probably not keep any reasonable direction and be completely useless soon. So you need a good focus and a good balance with your resources.

Forgiveness is crucial, and is a general attitude …

When dealing with the others, forgiveness is a crucial term. When others make choices, you might not be fine with them, since there are conflicts. How do you live with the choices of others? How do they live with yours? In conflicts you need to develop you opinion about how things are - and that includes communication. But communicating conflicts can lead to new conflicts: “this guy criticized you” … But we need to develop our mind, and we need to talk and to test different steps.

In the New Testament, God builds forgiveness as a crucial part into our life. Forgiveness is the basis of our relationship to him. He forgives us in Jesus. The cross, the whole life of Jesus, the whole New Testament, has forgiveness as its heart and center. But forgiveness is more. It is a life style. It is our daily bread. We need to live it in all what we do, our business, our relationship, our words and thoughts.

Trust needs forgiveness, again and again. Only when you forgive, you will be able to live in trust. Only when you are forgiven, you become trustworthy. The purity of God, who forgives, comes to you and fills your heart and your mind, when you live in his forgiveness. It comes to you and to me in Jesus. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts