When People Let You Down

In light of the new controversy surrounding Miss California (click here for article), I wanted to get on my soapbox for a minute.

First off, shame on me for being quick to jump the gun. When I first saw that she had "nude" pics, I was angry. Angry, not because she failed or sinned, but because I was now going to once again be labeled a hypocrite because a "Christian" had a double life. But, now the info I'm reading is saying that these were less severe (but still wrong) pics that she took way back when (maybe she wasn't saved then, who knows?).

Second, this just goes to show that you cannot put your trust in men (or women). Time after time we--especially those of the Christian community--build people up into superheroes. We put expectations and labels on them that they could NEVER live up to. And when they fail, we get ticked off and angry because they made us look bad.

It's not like God didn't give us a heads-up on this. Psalm 146.3-4 says, "Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing." And yet we do it every time. Think of all the men and women who have failed, especially people who were considered the "face of the Church" [which is a-whole-nother blog post]. Jimmy Swaggert, Jim Bakker, Ted Haggard. The list could go on and on, but the story is ultimately the same. Person comes along to do good, people make them a god (despite the warning from Psalms), they crack under pressure and do something really, really dumb, people get ticked and begin looking for the next hero.

So the lesson of all this is simple: Don't build people up to be more than they are. In one way or another they will let you down (hey they're just human too!). There is only one God in whom we can have full confidence that He will never fail us. We need to make sure that our trust and hope is in Him.