Faith & Trust – Is There a Difference?

Have you ever wondered what is the difference between faith and trust?  I certainly have and in my wondering have always felt that faith is the stronger of the two qualities.  I was taught in my religious upbringing that faith without works is dead; and that faith is a belief in something unseen.  Armed with those words, and they were just words for a very long time, I entered into the latest phase of my human journey, the spiritual quest for the essence of me.

In this latest phase of this human journey I have embraced faith in the sense of those things that I hear or see, not in the natural and worldly realm as most of us seem to exist, but in the unnatural and unseen realm; embraced faith as a belief that these unseen and inaudible messages are real.  For, as I was religiously taught, faith is a belief in the things unseen or unproven; things that can’t be classified or quantified; analyzed or established by any of the five natural senses.

An example is that faith I have, or a belief that there is a God, a Creator of all that exists, existed or will exist.  In my current journey I am reinforced in another belief that I developed in my religious days, and that is that for the Creator there is no such thing as time or distance.  I always had a picture of this great being standing magnificently tall such that he could look one way or the other and see the past or future, and look directly ahead and see the present; that all time as we define it was in constant view to him (yes I’ve always referred to YHWH/God as a male or masculine entity; yet another religious teaching).

Having that faith, as I now stand today, that those things I see and hear (not with the five senses) are real, then for me the next stage is to trust in what is being conveyed or shown to me.  Thus, as I currently think, faith comes before trust; or does it?  Perhaps it is not that way; perhaps it is the opposite way.  Perhaps it is that I trust that as I receive a message or see something not of this world, I will have faith.  Thus, it seems to me that the two words could be synonymous; that they mean one and the same thing.  I have a hard time with that conclusion, again because of my religious upbringing.

In a book, The Secret Teachings of the Tao Te Ching, there is a chapter that deals with these two words; faith and trust.  We are told that in the Chinese language the character xing means both trust and faith.  It says that:

From within, the person reveals their natural trust and faith in the inherent goodness of life, and speaks from the heart.

Looking at those words, it seems to me that because the author uses both words, they are different; they must be, otherwise why set them out separately.  I have to conclude at this moment in time that there are indeed similarities and that for the individual one will have a stronger meaning to him or her, and that whichever is stronger today might be the lesser tomorrow.  I guess it is simply another case of acceptance and going with the flow.  For this writer it makes life simple and easy; less complicated, this business of acceptance.

I have faith and I trust that life is unfolding as it should and when it should in my life.  The faith part, for me, is in a being greater than me, greater than all that is; it is thus a trust in something external of self.  I need and ought to apply that same faith and trust to what is revealed in the internal me, and step out in faith to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

I have faith and I will trust that my faith will not fail me because my faith is a faith in the faithfulness of He who created me – with purpose and out of love.  How can that ever fail and what’s not to trust?

In closing, I share with you another quote from the book:

Trustworthy words are not beautiful.
Beautiful words are not trustworthy.
The knower does not know everything.
The know-it-all knows nothing.
Kindness is not overindulgent.
Overindulgence is not kind.
The sage does not collect.
As soon as he exists for others, he has more.
As soon as he gives to others, he has more.
So the Tao of heaven benefits and does not harm.
The Tao of humankind exists and does not compete.