Radical Trust
It is far more challenging and rewarding to place our trust in Jesus than merely to believe that doctrinal statements about him are objectively true. For what does it really mean to simply say, "I believe that Jesus died for my sins, that he is my savior, that he is the second person of the Trinity and the only way to God"? Perhaps nothing. Just because one believes that these things are true does not necessarily mean that one is any different, any more loving, any more connected to God than if one didn't believe these things.

By contrast, if you place your trust in Jesus, if you open your heart to his life-giving presence, you will enter into a relationship of faith that will change you. You may be more likely to try to forgive instead of holding onto resentment like a security blanket; you may look at that homeless person at the freeway on-ramp a little differently; you may start to awaken to the quiet joy of just being alive in God, even when things are not going so well for you. Like any relationship, you will be asked to risk the experiment of living as he lives. This relationship will make you, by your efforts and by the grace of God, a more healthy, loving, courageous, and faithful person. You will, in fact, become more like Jesus himself, taking on his own character.

--Brian Taylor
from "Trust in Jesus," reprinted with permission from Becoming Human

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