Much has been said, studied and written lately on the subject of trust, but this past weekend, over the course of 48 hours, I learned about patterns of trust from two distinctly different but trusted voices who ultimately transformed my take on trust.
Washington politicians continually beg the general public to trust them to solve our problems. “Just trust me,” candidates, members of Congress and leaders of agencies say. “I can take care of you, provide you security, financial certainty and safety along with the necessities of life — no debt, no problems and no worries.” The promise is if you just trust Washington, Congress, the courts and other institutions, all will be well. Likewise, slick Madison Avenue promoters tell the American people to “trust them” to deliver products or services that will ensure happiness, health, wealth and freedom.
I heard a different message when Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch spoke at the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation forum at BYU on Friday night. Justice Gorsuch began with a cautionary warning relating to where people should place their trust, when he said, “We really shouldn’t trust nine people in black robes to lead and direct a nation of 330 million people.” He was in essence saying, “Rather than trusting elected or appointed officials and those in Washington, those in Washington should trust ‘we the people.’”
Justice Gorsuch centered his trust in the people. That trust was on full display in the title of his recently released book where he channeled Benjamin Franklin’s purported description of what the founders of America had crafted for the fledgling nation: “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
The pattern of trust Franklin believed in and the founders enshrined in the Constitution is contingent on the goodness of Americans and their willingness to look within and to each other before looking to government. The trusted pattern starts with individuals, families, neighborhoods and communities. Trusted relationships, at every level, require a moral people capable of responding to the better angels of their nature and the inspiration of the divine.
Of course, it was in the midst of those constitutional deliberations that Franklin spoke to the convention: “I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth — that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?”
For Gorsuch and Franklin, the pattern of trust is to look to the people and to God rather than the institutions of government or the politicians in power.
My second experience with trust last weekend happened on Sunday. Hundreds of miles away, a world religious leader stepped to the podium in front of 15,000 students at BYU-Idaho and was joined by thousands more tuning in on radio and the internet. Elder David A. Bednar, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also delivered a message centered in the proper pattern of trust.
I have watched prominent people from across business, academia and politics take to the stage in front of large crowds at various venues around the world. It can be a pretty heady experience for a guest lecturer to look out at a massive audience. It isn’t hard for a speaker to become the embodiment of a “trust me and I will teach you” approach. True teachers, however, humbly place their trust in the listeners.
Elder Bednar cautioned the crowd, “Don’t write down what I am saying.” Conveying his trust in the audience and with distinct emphasis, he continued, “If you are hearing what I am saying, I am failing and you aren’t truly listening.
Trusting the listener more than the speaker seems contrary to the very nature of such a gathering on a university campus. What Elder Bednar was really doing was teaching that there is a pattern to learning that everyone can completely trust. To illustrate, he invited all who could hear to submit personal questions to him via anonymous text message. More than 11,000 questions poured in.
I am certain, coming into the event, these young people would have been happy to have, and had absolute trust in, an answer to their personal questions from such a trusted spiritual leader. Elder Bednar had other plans. For 90 minutes he and his wife, Sister Susan Bednar, demonstrated the pattern they trusted for getting answers to life’s questions. By extension the couple instilled trust in their earnest listeners who began to trust the pattern for themselves. They demonstrated that personal introspection and heavenly guidance were a pattern that could be truly trusted.
Following the meeting, Elder Bednar stepped backstage. Seeing a group of young people, he immediately and instinctively went over to them, not looking for a compliment, but seeking to know if the trusted pattern had worked for them. The overwhelming response was, “I got an answer to a question I had. I got an answer to a question I didn’t know I had. I gained confidence that I can trust this pattern and come to get answers for myself.”
Elder Bednar glanced over at me and with a knowing and trusted smile said, “It shouldn’t work — having that kind of intimate conversation with well over 20,000 people — but it works every single time!” When a pattern is trusted and tested over time, it transforms faith into hope, hope into action, action into knowledge and knowledge into power.
In a single weekend, a judge and an apostle taught me that there are indeed patterns of trust to be trusted — human and divine.