Stop Believing People
Because People Lie & Every Person You Know is People
Words can inspire, manipulate, deceive, and liberate. Words are also insufficient in assessing the integrity of an individual, political party, president, pastor, leader or movement. It is in action—what people do rather than what they say—that true character is revealed.
Maya Angelou famously said, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." I mention this because in almost every conversation on personal and interpersonal church hurt involves someone believing someone they shouldn't;t have believed. We believe them because we go to church together, or raised our kids together, or because they are a leader. We trust others based on words, and our assumptions about the motivations behind those words, only to later discover that people are not that believable.