WORDS OF WISDOM
“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
I was very much one whose default mode was to trust others for many years. What made me a skeptic about trusting people for a few years was having some people I trusted demonstrate their insincerity and untrustworthiness on multiple occasions, a few taking serious advantage of me personally, others simply leaving me confused and hurt. That led me on another path, following the example I saw in scripture, to trust no person, trust only God! It is repeated over and over in Scripture. Even Jesus, we are told trusted no man for he knew their hearts. I don’t have that depth of discernment to know another’s heart, but I can learn to discern its condition by their words, reactions, choices, and past. That doesn’t mean one can’t engage with others, only that one must always keep in mind the risk that attends the deceitfulness of the human heart, especially that of the ones living in a worldly self-interest based ethic, the ones whose life chaos shows their lack of boundaries and discernment, who are unfamiliar with living into a values-based ethic that boundaries support and even less familiar with the virtues-based ethic exemplified by Christ and sought by his devoted followers. Like King David, Alexander Solzhenitsyn also reminds us in The Gulag Archipelago, that all hearts, and even one’s own heart, are deceptive. That is a burden Jesus Christ didn’t have to bear, as scripture says there was no guile in him. If one has appropriate guard over the pathways to her heart and mind and is seeking the will of God in the power of the Holy Spirit,then God will guide us in knowing who can be trusted, how far to trust, and in what circumstances trust is warranted. Applying a “guard” to one’s heart and mind has reduced disappointments in the behavior of others and fewer hurts from others’ deceptiveness or maliciousness. And God has been gracious in teaching me how to trust rightly and, when deceived, to forgive and release the person to him. He is more than kind in restoring that which has been taken and in healing that which has been wounded. (9/21/2023 CBB)