Monday, 09 November 2009

• See How Easily You Can be Duped!

  I have always been a trusting person.  I like to think the best of people until and unless they give me a reason to not trust them.  Consequently, I have been burned a few times.  Ok..  A LOT of times.  However, I have been burned as a result of my own sometimes, gullible ignorance in being a very open person more than I have been burned by others.  After all, at 44 years of age, I should have long ago realized that people will take information which I provide as an open book and twist it around through their own filter to justify their own perceptions, experiences and heart.  I have also burned other people and disappointed them because of my human nature.  My human nature which gravitates toward comfort, instant gratification and ease.  The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:

   ⁵Thus says the LORD,
           "Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind
           And makes flesh his strength,
           And whose heart turns away from the LORD.
      ⁶"For he will be like a bush in the desert
           And will not see when prosperity comes,
           But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,
           A land of salt without inhabitant.
      ⁷"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD
           And whose trust is the LORD.
      ⁸"For he will be like a tree planted by the water,
           That extends its roots by a stream
           And will not fear when the heat comes;
           But its leaves will be green,
           And it will not be anxious in a year of drought
           Nor cease to yield fruit.
      ⁹"The heart is more deceitful than all else
           And is desperately sick;
           Who can understand it?
      ¹⁰"I, the LORD, search the heart,
           I test the mind,
           Even to give to each man according to his ways,
           According to the results of his deeds.
      ¹¹"As a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid,
           So is he who makes a fortune, but unjustly;
           In the midst of his days it will forsake him,
           And in the end he will be a fool."
      ¹²A glorious throne on high from the beginning
           Is the place of our sanctuary.
  

  The sad truth is that we live in an "information age" and traits such as "integrity" and "confidentiality" are quickly disappearing.  I have told many people something along the lines of "keep this between the 2 of us and it should go no further."  Only to find out later it went further.. much further.  Wagging the tongue is part of human nature for all of us.  (The tongue can no man tame... courtesy of the book of James.) I am guilty of it and you are guilty of it and if you say you aren't, then you have a lying tongue on top of it!

  So now, I am adjusting my paradigm.  I was a little sad about it at first.  The fact is that we should realize man is basically not trustworthy so that we conduct our own speech in a way which is honorable, graceful, respectful and worthy of the trust of others.  You see, if we approach others as if they cannot maintain a confidence, we will not be so willing to give them our information or the information of others. 

  In the Old Testament, very few people were allowed into the holy of holies.  When it comes to our lives, we might allow more people into our sanctuary; however very few should enter our sacred space of confidentiality.

  

  • 2:34 PM
  • 55 Views
  • 10 eProps
  • 5 Comments