You ever stop and think how much of life is just one giant trust exercise?
We don’t call it that, but it is. You step on a plane and trust the pilot, though you’ve never seen his flight log. You eat sushi and trust the chef knew what he was doing. You swipe your card and trust some blinking server in the cloud said, “Approved.”
If you had to personally verify everything—lab test your coffee beans, double-check every bridge bolt, or do a background check on every Uber driver—you’d never leave your house. Trust is the invisible currency that keeps society from stalling out.
But here’s the kicker—most of us never stop and ask: who or what am I ultimately trusting?
Everyday Trust vs. Ultimate Trust
You trust your alarm will go off at 6am. You trust your seatbelt will hold if things go sideways. You trust your paycheck will hit your account. You trust gravity’s not going to flick off tomorrow.
That’s everyday trust. We all live in it.
But ultimate trust? That’s different. That’s where you bet your life when everything else collapses.
And sooner or later, life throws those punches—health, loss, betrayal, death. That’s when everyday trust doesn’t cut it anymore.
So I’m talking with Brad—mid-30s, works at Xbox at Microsoft. Cool guy, good salary, Xbox swag in his Union Bay lake front flat, yes, ridiculous. From the outside, he looks like he’s winning. But then he drops this.
Brad: (leans back, half-smile) Look, man, I’ve got the job, the money, the freedom. But honestly? I’m not fulfilled. I keep thinking the next project or promotion will do it. But it never does. It’s like I’m running on fumes, no matter how much I pour in.
Me: Dude, that’s more honest than most people ever get. Most bury it under Netflix or tequila. Let me ask you this: what does it mean to trust God?
Brad: (laughs) Bro, I don’t even know if I believe in God. And if He’s real, why would I need to “trust” Him? I built this life.
Me: Totally fair. But don’t you already trust stuff all the time?
Brad: Like what?
Me: You trust your paycheck to land every two weeks. You trust your 401(k) to be there decades from now. You trust Xbox servers not to glitch out when you launch a game. You trust the laws of physics every time you hit “Start.” That’s all trust. The question isn’t if you trust—it’s what you’re trusting in.
Brad: Yeah, but that’s not the same thing as God.
Me: Maybe not. But here’s the thing—all those things are fragile. Companies collapse. Money evaporates. Health goes sideways. Even physics, man—we think it’s locked in, but scientists still argue about whether we’re living in a simulation. So what happens when the thing you lean on caves in? This is where the convo takes a detour.
Me: Look, people hand out trust like candy, sometimes to the weirdest stuff.
We trust politicians—even though history shows us they lie. We trust algorithms. You open Spotify, and it somehow knows your mood. You don’t understand the code—you just trust the machine. People trust AI now. We’re building systems that think faster than us, and half of us just assume, “Yeah, that’ll work out fine.”
And don’t get me started on UFOs. Think about how quick people are to trust a blurry TikTok video as proof of alien life.
Or history. You’ve got people trusting textbooks that say the pyramids were built in 20 years with ropes and ramps. Really? Have you seen those stones?
So, trust isn’t about logic alone. It’s about where we’re willing to put our weight—whether it’s tech, politics, conspiracies, or ancient civilizations.
So the question is: if you already hand out trust to Spotify playlists, career ladders, and politicians… why not at least consider trusting God?
The Risk of Trust
Brad: So you’re saying trusting God is like…a backup plan?
Me: Nah. More like the foundation.
Here’s the reality: trusting God feels risky because it’s surrender. You’re saying, “I’m not in control.” And if you’ve built your whole life on controlling outcomes, that’s terrifying.
But the irony? When you trust God, it doesn’t shrink you. It frees you. You stop carrying the pressure to hold the whole universe together.
Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
That’s not religious fluff. That’s Him saying, “Hand me what your career, money, and success were never built to carry.” Brad pauses for a second.
Brad: (quiet, thinking) So trusting God isn’t just saying, “Yeah, He’s real.” It’s actually leaning on Him instead of myself.
Me: Exactly. You stop trying to be the gravity holding your world together. And here’s the crazy part—when people do that, they end up finding the fulfillment they were chasing but never catching.
It’s like this: you’ve been trying to power your life with AA batteries, and God’s saying, “I’ll plug you into the grid.”
Brad: (chuckles) Alright, that’s a pretty good analogy.
So here’s the bottom line: trust isn’t optional. You already live by it.
You trust chairs not to collapse. You trust bridges not to snap. You trust news anchors not to flat-out lie (though… good luck). You trust pilots, politicians, and playlists.
So the real question isn’t “Do I trust?” It’s “Who or what am I trusting right now—and will it hold when life hits hardest?”
Because whether you’re crushing it at Xbox or barely keeping the lights on, that question doesn’t go away.
Who do you trust when the bottom falls out?
That’s what Alpha is about. Not a sermon. Not a sales pitch. Just real, curious, sometimes messy conversations that cut through the noise and point us to something bigger.
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