Assumptions

Last night at the Men for Christ meeting, I accidentally gave $6 to the woman collecting the money for the meal instead of the actual $5 cost. When she stopped me to hand me back the extra dollar (and as someone apologized for the absentminded preacher), I just stuffed the bill into my shirt pocket instead of placing it back in my wallet. The woman laughed and said, "You know you'll forget about that until your wife finds it on laundry day!"

It was a harmless comment, and I didn't correct her, but it has me thinking about the assumptions we make about other people: marital status, things they know, how they feel about things. Often these turn into judgments. How they speak and dress, the car they drive, the house they live in, and other things frequently form the basis of our opinions of them, opinions ranging from income level to their very character. Without all the facts, though, all we're doing is assuming. And to assume makes an . . . well, you know the rest.

I think we make assumptions about matters of faith, too. Without consulting Scripture or how others have read the Bible through the years, we establish a multitude of opinions about things, especially about what's sinful and what's not. More than that, however, we simply repeat what we've always heard about a variety of topics when those beliefs could easily be proven wrong simply by opening our Bibles or thinking about who God is. As a result, many of us believe things we assume to be true but aren't. Just because the preacher or your grandmother said it doesn't mean it's true, after all. It's true only if God said it, and in His love for us, He provided a Book telling us exactly what He has said.

Whether we're talking faith or other people, we need to stop making assumptions. Never assume; talk, think, study, and analyze. But never assume.