The Action of Trust

We are a people of action. Our very proclamation, the very first words we proclaimed to G-d leave no room for doubt, “we will do and we will listen.” While this statement traditionally demonstrates our commitment to the mitzvot before our understanding of them, it speaks to a more foundational understanding of life as well.

When we step into our G-d-like responsibility to add to and build in this world, we naturally move through a process of five stages of creation. Initially, our will stirs a desire in us. We have a feeling, an inclination, a pull, a tug towards something. Be it a loud shout or an almost imperceptible whisper, it is there. We think about this idea, this dream, this goal and toss it around, try it on, work it out. We can then visualize and imagine our desire, our goal coming to fruition. We see it in our mind's eye and it becomes almost tangible in its realness, its details taking shape. We then bring this inner dimension out and speak its beginning sparks into existence. We discuss it, lay plans for it, and further build it verbally. And then we take action. We begin the physical steps towards creating its reality. 

While the first four levels of creation are important and necessary, it is this last step of taking action which moves the creative process from potential to actual. Initially, we dream, think big and expansive thoughts, building them as we move through the stages in our minds. Important steps laying the foundation for what is to be. We have, however, yet to bring these innermost desires to life. Taking that first step past the planning stage is congruent to our belief in ourselves. When we feel we can, we do. When we feel we can't, we don't.

This is so in the spiritual world as well. The first four levels are as our faith in G-d, very real and very much internal. We feel, we believe. We build towards an intrinsic knowing. Unequivocally and without a doubt, we know there is a G-d who created the world, who created us and who loves us. It is within us, felt, seen and even verbalized by us. It has, however, yet to be tangibly expressed by us.

Action, according to the Netivot Shalom, is what converts faith into trust. To trust in Hashem is to rely on Him, bitachon. It is the real world expression and tangible actions we take which proclaim our faith in Hashem. Action is the understanding that we are responsible to begin, and Hashem is responsible for the outcome. Action moves the process from potential to actual, creating the vessel for G-d’s blessings to reach us and our dreams to be lived by us. 

At each step in the creative process Hashem is with us. It is He who sends the stirring of our will, it is He who helps us to develop the idea, the goal. Together, we imagine what it’s like to attain and reach this desire. It is, however, up to us to bring about our goals. If we fully internalize that G-d is with us throughout, taking action with no guarantee of the outcome is as simple and natural as breathing. The barometer for our reliance on G-d is in our doing.

There’s a humility to believing in ourselves. To live a passive life is to lack belief both in ourselves and in Hashem, as the two are intertwined. When we know our intrinsic value, we are acknowledging G-d’s essence within us and understanding we are an extension of, a part of, Him. To disbelieve in ourselves is to negate G-d. To deny ourselves is to deny G-d. It is to proclaim that something G-d created, “spent time” refining and “putting thought and effort into,” is somehow insufficient. To reject ourselves, our worth, our ability to “do” is, at its very core, an expression and level of arrogance better not to be attained.

Proper faith in ourselves is humbling and life affirming. It is living up to our G-d given potential to be and to do because we are a part of something larger, because that is what Hashem created us for. It is completing the creative process to the best of our ability with full confidence Hashem will top off our efforts. 

Trust is developed in layers but enabled by action. There’s a paradigm in our lives .. we have a desire, we take a step, our trust is expressed and actualized, Hashem then stirs our will once again to be and to do more. The creative process begins anew, another opportunity to create, another level to ascend. And upwards and onwards in an endless cycle of action and trust, the dialogue flowing between us and G-d.