"You Don't Trust Me"

If you're a parent, you probably have heard this complaint a hundred times. The youngster wanted to attend an entertainment of questionable value, or they wanted to take a late-evening job, or they wanted the keys to the car. With caution born of experience, you were not permitting it, or else you were laying down some strict boundaries. That's when the child may have objected, "You don't trust me," and wisely, you refrained from saying, "That's right, I don't!"

Trusting others is a balancing act. At one extreme are the individuals who trust no one. They suspect nearly everyone of evil intent, they see dark conspiracy in most actions of government or big business, they are certain our country will be ruined by . . . (people who are not like them.) On the other hand, some folks are too trusting. They let friends or family members take advantage of them, they give their bank account number to anyone who calls, they expect the best man/woman to win with or without their own vote. There has to be a place of balance somewhere between these two excesses.

Maybe this is where Jesus was taking His listeners when He said, "Stay alert. This is hazardous work I'm assigning you. You're going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don't call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove. Don't be naïve . . ." (Matthew 10:16-17) Jesus Himself was an example of this kind of wisdom coupled with goodness. "During the time he was in Jerusalem, those days of the Passover Feast, many people noticed the signs he was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him. But Jesus didn't entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn't need any help in seeing right through them" (John 2:23-25)

I remember that the ruler I used in one of the elementary grades had inscribed on it The Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." People who are suspicious of everyone act as though the rule were, "You'd better do unto others before they can do unto you." And those who are naïve read the Golden Rule as, "Do unto others what you can then expect them to do unto you.'' The first is not kind, the second is not wise. The followers of Jesus are called to be both.

MaryMartha

Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 2003 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.