This is a ‘who’ not a ‘what’ question. Do YOU know WHO you believe in? Do you know why? Believing involves so many aspects , ‘categories’, and components that it can be difficult at times really understanding who we believe in and why? How do you choose/decide who you believe in? Do you look at their words and actions – how they go about being them? Does it build over time and interaction that gives you the trust and confidence to believe in them? What will you do if or when they break that trust – and how will you ‘handle’ your relationship with that person in the future?
One of the problems we can easily succumb to is putting people on pedestals. They don’t belong there. No one except the Lord should be on a pedestal. People make mistakes, they sin, they get in bad moods, and multiple other acts. When (it really isn’t an ‘if’ issue) they do, how do we respond to them? Throw them out with the bathwater? It was we who had endowed them with a status that was beyond them so why do we then turn on them when they don’t live up to our standards… typically never communicated?
For me, it is nearly impossible to separate trust and believing, especially when it comes to others. Broken trust is a painful experience so I tend to be a tad hesitant when it comes to extending trust. I never rush to judgment though… whether it is to extend trust or withholding it. Perhaps you don’t have as firm a correlation between trust and believing – but with broken trust, taking what they say or say they will do is taken with a heaping tablespoon of salt. Fair? Possibly not.
I do find it difficult to separate experience, mine, from how I relate to that other person. But since I also believe I need grace and mercy far more often than ‘justice’ I have no choice but to apply that to others. Interaction will undoubtedly continue… but depth probably won’t. And yes, that is my loss.
