It’s a Matter of Trust

“So now, my son, find yourself a trustworthy man who will make the journey with you.” Tobit 5:3

As I sat waiting for Sunday mass to begin, I felt a tap on my shoulder. In the aisle was an older woman who politely asked, “Are you Tony?” “Yes,” I replied.

“And you work with Living Bread Radio, right?” she questioned. “Yes I do,” I responded.

Just then, she pressed a wad of bills into my hand and asked if I could deliver this donation to the radio station.

“Sure,” I replied, “but I won’t be there for a couple of weeks.” “That’s alright,” she calmly replied.

As I took the money from her hand, I asked her if I could get a name and address so that the station could send her a thank you note.

“No, that’s alright, I prefer to remain anonymous,” she said quietly, “and I trust you!”

As she walked back to her seat, I couldn’t help but think, “She trusts me and she doesn’t even know me? I could just simply take the money and no one would know. Yet, she trusts me! If you take one look at me, I look like a poster boy for the movie Goodfellas, yet she TRUSTS me.

The next day it was back to work as I made my way to Indiana to see a client. Six and a half hours in the car, tired and hungry, I stopped at a service station for some four dollar a gallon gasoline!

As I pumped gas into my guzzling SUV, a late 1980’s Buick pull up to the pump next to me and an elderly man got out of the car and immediately approached me.

“Excuse me, but I was visiting my friend in the hospital and realized as I pulled in to the gas station that I left my wallet at my home in Bloomington. I don’t have any cash and my car is on empty.”

“Oh, boy,” I thought and asked, “Why did you ask me when there are so many other people at the pumps?”

“Because you look like I could trust you,” was his reply.

“Really! All of these people and you think I look trustworthy?” I inquired with disbelief on my animated face.

“Yes, I had a feeling that I could ask you and you would help me,” he said in a soft voice.

Well, now I know that he trusts me, but do I trust him? This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this very story at a gas station. As a matter of fact, there were two different times in the past month that I have been approached and I turned both requests down. But not this time!

“Well,” I said. I trust you too, as I swiped my credit card to get him enough gas to get back home.

Did I trust him because he was an elderly farmer in a Buick? Would I have trusted him if he were younger, Hispanic or African-American? Or, did I trust him, because the day before a woman I didn’t know trusted me with a large amount of cash?

I’ll have to think more about that. Maybe God is telling me something about trust, but I can tell you that it felt good to help him, and even better to be trusted by the woman at church.

I just never imagined that I looked trustworthy!

Note: This post was originally published September 2, 2012. Currently, I am on a brief hiatus finishing my book, Finding God’s Grace. During that time, I will feature posts from the past that you may not have had the chance to read. I hope you enjoy them. I’ll have new, original stories in April.

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