Trust – it can be your best friend and your worst enemy.
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“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s tool.”
A magnificent quote by the great Stephen King. The trust of the innocent can be very dangerous to the innocent. People will take advantage of you when you are innocent and naïve. Especially those practicing deceit. Which is why it is said to be a liar’s tool. Trust is what the deceitful use as a tool to get what they want from the trusting.
Trust is not always a bad thing to have. Most great relationships are built on trust. Most people get along by trusting in something or someone. Mainly, God. ‘Put your trust in God and keep your powder dry.’ Do you understand that quote? ‘Put your trust in God and keep your powder dry.’ Don’t trust anyone but God and be ready to square off if need be. Too many people today are way too relaxed ad unaware of their surroundings and allow bad things to happy. All because they put their trust in other people instead of themselves and God.
You can’t go wrong trusting God, which is why there are so many religions. Humans need to feel safe. And how do most of us feel safe? By trust or mere faith. But to me, faith is nothing more than the absence of knowledge. So, how can we be sure we can have faith in what we have no knowledge of? That doesn’t even sound right. But, I trust that most of you get what I’m saying.
I think I began to use my trust instincts at a very young age. When I was just a baby boy, I would trust that when I would cry I would get what I wanted. Developed this attitude as a bouncing baby boy. It didn’t take long for me to realize, either. Crying got me fed. Crying got me changed. Crying got me picked up. Crying got me love. Call me spoiled, but it worked for me. Trust that.
I’ve since abandoned that type of thinking. I’m all grown up, now. Life as an adult is different. The late, great Muhammad Ali said ‘A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.’ I’m all grown up, now. And I refuse to have my life be nothing more than a big waste. Not the years that I put in. Trust that.
But, let us get back to the topic at hand. Trust. It can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Your choice. Once, I put all my trust in a young lady friend of mine. So much trust, I moved her into my apartment. I was just nineteen years old. I thought I was in love and plus, I trusted her. First two mistakes. Too young for love and too dumb to understand trust. In retrospect, it was all stupid. But, at the time, it was the best idea ever. We were gonna be the black Bonnie and Clyde. We were tougher than leather. Two peas in a pod. Until she betrayed my trust. All I can say is that it hurt. I built a bridge and got over it. Now, I trust no one.
Well, that’s not entirely true. I trust many, but I tolerate a few. And when you cross that line of trust, you can’t cross back. Keep it moving. I won’t tolerate that. Keep your powder dry. Because you never know when something might pop off. Can’t trust everybody, so I don’t trust anybody. Call me paranoid, irrational or simply obsessed with the distrust of human beings. Can’t trust that.
But I’ve learned to tolerate more of the distrust by not dealing with it. Putting trust in God is recognizing the God in me and trusting myself. And keeping my powder dry is just keeping on my ‘A’ game. Staying aware of my surroundings. And when I trust my surroundings, I am most comfortable with myself and can operate more swiftly and cohesively. More confidently than ever.
So, trust this. I’ve always believed in ‘Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.’ You can’t trust everything you hear and you barely can trust everything you see. It’s a thin line between trust and gullible. Another line worth staying mindful of crossing. Before you know it, that trust can have you falling for some dumb sh!t.
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Photo credit: Getty Images
Initially I was frustrated with “But I’ve learned to tolerate more of the distrust by not dealing with it. Putting trust in God is recognizing the God in me and trusting myself. And keeping my powder dry is just keeping on my ‘A’ game. Staying aware of my surroundings. And when I trust my surroundings, I am most comfortable with myself and can operate more swiftly and cohesively. More confidently than ever.” But after a few moments, it came to me, the God within us is what I call the Spirit” of God. I have found that what I used… Read more »
Very good. I like that, Tom.