Unwavering trust demands a courage that borders on the heroic.

"When the shadow of Jesus’ cross falls across our lives in the form of failure, rejection, abandonment, betrayal, unemployment, loneliness, depression, the loss of a loved one; when we are deaf to everything but the shriek of our own pain; when the world around us suddenly seems a hostile, menacing place—at those times we may cry out in anguish, “How could a loving God permit this to happen?” at such moments the seeds of distrust are sown. It requires heroic courage to trust in the love of God no matter what happens to us.

The most brilliant student I ever taught in seminary was a young man named Augustus Gordon. He now lives as a hermit six months each ear in a solitary cabin deep in the Smoky Mountains above Liberty, Tennessee. The remaining half-year he travels the country preaching the gospel on behalf of Food for the Poor, a missionary outreach feeding the hungry and homeless in Haiti, Jamaica, and other Caribbean islands.

On a recent visit I asked him, “Gus, could you define the Christian life in a single sentence?” He didn’t even blink before responding. “Brennan,” he said, “I can define it in a single word: trust.”

“... Unwavering trust is a rare and precious thing because it often demands a courage that borders on the heroic."

- excerpt from Brennan Manning’s Ruthless Trust