When Innocence Meets Reality

Many things occur on a daily basis on the state house lawn. With my office window overlooking the lawn, I am quite often the inconspicuous observer of many of these happenings. Protests, speeches, special presentations, live broadcasts, you name it. Each morning, the inmates from Department of Corrections come over and take care of our lawn. As I walk by each morning, they are very polite, stop what they are doing, smile, and wish me a good morning. The other group of regulars to the lawn are school children. Each school day, at least two or three different classes will be on a field trip to the state house, and enjoy a picnic lunch on the lawn. Most of the time, the inmates have done their job and cleared out before the kids come. But yesterday was not so. I watched out my window as a young, happy, innocent group of 5 or 6 year old kids walked by a melancholy, quiet group of inmates. The kids just all kind of stopped and stared. I wonder what they were thinking. I wonder what the inmates were thinking. Those kids just came face to face with the truth that not all is good and well in this world. This got me to thinking a step further....


And thinking...


And I'm still thinking...


Do you remember the first time your young innocent mind realized that life is not "all good"? Do you remember the first time your eyes witnessed a horrible injustice and nothing was done about it? Do you remember seeing for the first time that people really are cruel and life is not fair? That complete, open, and unashamed immorality is flaunted everywhere? That filthy talking is respected as an art?

How did it make you feel? Let down? Disillusioned? Alone and helpless in a dog-eat-dog world? Perhaps defeated as nothing and no one seemed to be fighting for the cause of justice?

How is one to learn to trust in a world like this? As a young child, before our innocence was corrupted with these stark realities of life, it was easy to trust. I suppose that is why Jesus said over and over that we must have the faith of a child in order to enter the kingdom of God.

The Bible has a lot to say about trust. We are warned not even to trust our own hearts, as they are deceitful above all things and desparately wicked. (Jeremiah 17:9). Our own feelings and desires will deceive us.

Proverbs 26:23-25 warns us of trusting the superficial, deceitful man: "Fervent lips with a wicked heart are like earthenware covered with silver dross. He who hates disguises it with his lips and lays up deceit within himself. When he speaks kindly, do not believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart."

Contrast this with Proverbs 10:20 and Proverbs 25:11: "The tongue of the righteous is choice silver." "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver."

Each of these passages likens the words we speak with silver. With the deceitful man, it is just silver dross. It is an outward coating, but there is no substance. It is cheap, and it is fake. It has no real value.

However, the righteous man's words are "choice silver." His words are genuine. They have great value.

So, how do we know the difference? We cannot see the heart. Only God can. So how do we know who to trust and who not to?

Well, how do we find the true worth of silver? Proverbs 17:3 says, "The refining pot for silver and the furnace for gold..." We have to see how it responds to heat. It must go through the fire. The true nature of the silver will be obvious after it encounters the heat. If it is just dross, an outward coating, it will shrivel up, become ugly and disfigured, the impurities will be all that is left, and it will smell like it has been through fire!

However, real silver will be purified by fire. It will come through the heat a better, finer, shinier piece of metal.

This is the same way we can determine if people are genuine or not. Are you struggling with whether to trust someone or not? Well, sit back for a while and watch them go through some trials. Watch what kind of effect the heat has in their life. Does it leave a disfigured life with a bad odor, or does it make the person better and finer?

And it doesn't have to be a HUGE trial to be able to determine this. Small things are often a good indicator as well.

When innocence meets reality, and we are confronted with the decision to trust or not to trust, the "heat test" is a good thing to keep in mind.

One more thought, if someone else were to put YOU through the "heat test", how would you come out?