Trust? Whatever happened to trust?

As I/we have watched the stock market continuing to grind lower, I feel something more may be at work. And that something centres on trust and credibility which, I believe, have been lacking in corporate and government leadership in recent years. Like the boy who cried wolf, corporate and regulatory officials have issued a lot of hogwash over the years. Until recently we investors were willing to believe it. Now we may not fall so easily into gullibility. Is it any surprise that virulent mistrust seems to own the markets now?
We know the old adage “Trust abused is trust destroyed”. Those who should have been stewards of other people’s money became salespeople for all manner of “shysters” whose aim was to enrich only themselves.
It’s obvious - we have to rebuild trust, starting by making sure each of us is trustworthy in whatever we do and say. Never mind pointing the finger at someone else. Start right where you are. If enough people are willing to do that, there’s still hope something good will come from this mess.

A piece from the forthcoming book "ReJesus" by Hirsch & Frost

Through Jesus’ eyes, the church is the sent people of God. A church is not a building or an organization. It is an organic collective of believers, centered on Jesus and sent out into the world to serve others in his name. When we are taken captive by the Nazarene carpenter, we can no longer see ourselves as participants in a similar system to the one he came to subvert. Not only does Jesus undermine temple theology by becoming the temple himself, but also he undermines the sacrificial system by dispensing with sin without reference to ceremonial washings, rituals, or liturgies (“Go in peace, your sins are forgiven”). As noted earlier, he also plays fast and loose with the legalism of Sabbath keeping. In fact, he subverts the whole religious system. So why would he do that simply to replace it with a Christian religious system? He doesn’t! He is antireligious, offering his followers direct access to the Father, forgiveness in his name, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, to be reJesused is to come to the recognition that the church as the New Testament defines it is not a religious institution but rather a dynamic community of believers who participate in the way of Jesus and his work in this world.

We have become like human grafitti in search of empty walls

A paradox of narcissism in the 21st. century is that in our drive to be someone, to leave our stamp on the world, we have become like human graffiti in search of empty walls.