Suspicious Behavior

It's not a matter of "What are you?" so much as "How are you?" in my opinion.  Let me share what I mean.

How are you?  Are you a trusting person?  a person of faith in God, Allah, or Adonai/Yahweh?
How are you?  Are you a trusting person?  a person who trusts the other human to listen, learn and grow in her or his own time?

When Jesus told the good news he didn't evoke guilt for failure to believe him (although he was occasionally disappointed in others slowness).  He trusted God.  He trusted the message.  He trusted other human beings.  That's how he was.

Not so Mohammed.  He trusted the sword.  He pressured, he slaughtered, his news was not that good.
That's how he was.  Some of his later followers became more trusting.  These days there seems to be a division between trusting followers of Mohammed and suspicious, untrusting fellow Muslims.

But wait!  That is equally true for Christians.  The "evangelical" wing of the Christian church doesn't trust God and doesn't trust the message to be good news and for sure cannot trust other humans to see it their way.  These folks and institutions use pressure, gimmicks, and threats to "evangelize".  They pervert the nature of God and the Good News in God's message.  That's how they are.  At the other end of the spectrum are the folks who think any old message will do.  Believe something and join us .  They don't trust the message although they may trust the God who grasped them in their time.

Most of us, I think, exhibit suspicious behavior.  We are suspicious that God cannot do it without our gimmicks, we are very suspicious that others won't 'get it'.  Maybe it would help if we were more suspicious of our own gaps in faith and trust.

We can do something loving with our selves.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.