Tag Archives: trust

It’s about me, not them

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We don’t do the right things because of how that will affect others. We do the right things because of how they shape us.

What I mean is, loving your enemy won’t always make your enemy love you back. Turning the other cheek just might get you slapped a second time. Giving to those in need means that you will sometimes be taken advantage of. A soft answer doesn’t always turn away wrath; at times it just gets you shouted down.

I hear Christians who are afraid to do good things because others might take advantage of them. Let’s get this out of the way up front: you will be taken advantage of. If you trust others, you will get burned now and again. If you reach out a hand, you’ll get bitten sometimes.

But if you don’t reach out, if you don’t love, if you don’t forgive, if you don’t trust, you’ll never become like Jesus.

And that loss is much greater than what any person can do to you.

Telling God what to do

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I think about all the times in my life when I told God what he needed to do. Prayers that not only laid out the problem but also the solution. Prayers that told him what was best for my life, what would make me happy, what would make everything work out right.

Boy, was I foolish. Boy, am I still foolish.

Simple solutions to complex problems are rarely that simple and they are rarely solutions. That goes for international crises and for personal plans.

I need to learn to trust and say, “Your will be done.”

It ain’t easy, folks.

Photo courtesy of Kenn W. Kiser via www.morguefile.com

Conspiracy theories and the Bible

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On Monday, I was talking about trusting and not trusting. Part of what got me to thinking about this was the whole idea of conspiracy theories. I have friends who see conspiracies everywhere, right down to the idea that there is a small, powerful group that pretty much controls all world affairs. I just can’t fit those sorts of views into my overall worldview. I know that there are conspiracies, large and small, but I’m not going to spend my life looking around every corner to try and find them.

In the same way, I typically reject conspiracy theories regarding the Bible. I don’t buy into any of the ancient conspiracy theories about the authorship of the biblical books. I don’t accept conspiracy theories about the canon. And I don’t think that the majority of Bible translators have conspired to hide truths from us.

Could any of these people along the way have acted to promote a certain agenda? Certainly. I think all of us are influenced in one way or another by the things that we believe. But I believe that the checks and balances of community, time and divine intervention have helped to keep the impact of those personal agendas to a minimum.

It’s my opinion that our job, as people of the covenant, is to study and seek to understand the Bible in the form that we have received it. I’m not willing to play the game of “Maybe this writer wasn’t inspired” or “maybe this book doesn’t belong” or “maybe this passage isn’t original.” That’s where I am right now.

What about you?

Can We Be Too Trusting?

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“It is better to trust a person who should not be trusted than to distrust a person who should be trusted.” I heard that proverb years ago, and the long I live, the more I agree with it.

I’ve chosen to believe the best about people as long as I can. That’s gotten me into trouble several times, including the two times I was robbed at gunpoint. I’m sure that I’ve been swindled and cheated, scorned and ridiculed for that very trait. And I’m sure it will happen again.

But I don’t want to come to mistrust everyone. It’s not worth it to me. I see the people who are always looking for the other person’s angle, and I don’t want to be like them. All that you miss out on by not trusting people is not compensated by whatever amount of money and heartache you might save.

I’ve come to suspect, and here’s where I’m very open to correction, that we tend to assume people will act the way that we would in their very same situation. That is, the one who expects the other to try and take an unfair advantage is the one who would take that advantage, given the chance. We naturally exaggerate the negative traits of others, so someone who thinks everyone is a robber isn’t necessarily a robber himself. But he is someone who is willing to promote his interests (or those of his groups) ahead of those of others.

Does any of that make sense? There are verses that seem to urge us to be more “astute” in our dealings with others (Luke 16:8; Matthew 10:16) How trusting should we be? In what ways can we be too trusting?

In ___ We Trust

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A friend of mine wrote a rant on his blog which seemed to be directed at my recent posts on politics. I’m not really sure, because if he was referring to what I wrote, he obviously didn’t understand most of it.

The last statement in his post really caught my eye:

And please vote so that those simple brethren can continue to have the right to their ignorant opinions.

At first I was really irritated by the “ignorant opinions” comment, but then I realized that that’s just the way my friend talks. He’s a black/white, all/nothing kind of guy, so if you don’t see things the way he does, you’re ignorant. Since we rarely see eye to eye, I’m considered ignorant most of the time. I can live with that.

What worried me, however, was this idea that by voting, someone can continue to give me the right to have my opinion. I’ve heard such said about military service, but that’s the first time I’ve heard it said about voting.

And I realized why such talk is so dangerous. Maybe not directly to those in the church, but definitely to those outside. When we start saying that America gives us our freedom, America gives us our rights, America gives us our prosperity and our way of life, America gives us just about everything the average person holds dear, is it any wonder that they see no need for God? Is it any wonder that the average U.S. citizen would just as soon worship America as worship God?

In this way of looking at things, our military gives us our freedom. Our government grants us our liberties. Voting allows others to have ignorant opinions. God gives a few spiritual things that aren’t of much consequence, but the things that really count are granted by the gods Democracy and the U.S. of A.

I’m not saying that this is what Christians believe, though many talk as if this were their outlook. I’m saying that when Christians talk in this way, non-Christians see that the presence of God in our world is not nearly as important as the continued existence of this country.

People had freedom in Christ long before the United States came into being. People had the ability to express opinions and ideas about Christianity for over 1700 years before this country was established. The freedoms that matter do not depend on your voting, your military service or any other human activity.

Some trust in ballot boxes, some trust in soldiers, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God!