Do you know little of what is going on in your church or community or are you aware of the behind the scene decisions? Do you want to know or do you just find yourself trusting that leaders are going to be honest with you? Surely because they are your leaders that they are going to be honest with you.

This is one of the major human failings I believe, that we forget and let others decide for us. We need to never forget or get so complacent that we forget that they are mere humans and because of that they are often times dishonest, bumbling and self protecting. Of course we are all the same, and every single moment we need to remember this.

When it comes to.....

When it comes to leadership decisions - financial commitments, letting people go, or bringing people on to help the leaders, do you find that you are the last to know? Most importantly of all do you ever know, or do they just say something and if caught they change what they are saying?

For instance, do they say something like "I did this," and if this is a lie and they get caught they will somehow use their powers of persuasion to convince you that even though they said something or did something, that isn't how they meant it. And because you want to believe so badly that what they are saying is the truth that you let it go. Somehow you must have misunderstood, because after all, they are the leaders and so it must be us who have misunderstood. This is a common sign of an abusive situation. One in which the one who is lying is let off because we just have to believe that he wouldn't lie. I suppose it is somewhat of a self protection thing, for if we really let ourselves believe the truth it would hurt and complicate our lives.

Often this is true, because people don’t want to know what is going on. Sometimes because they don’t care or they truly don’t believe it is their business or if they accept that they are being fed stories that it will either complicate their lives further or perhaps cause them pain. So they are willing to let others take the pain for them.

People are often clueless about the major decisions their leaders and pastors are making because sometimes their leaders have deemed it unnecessary for those around them to know what is happening. This is wrong, this causes hurt not only to those that they hurt, but eventually it has to come to a point where it will eat at the leader's soul and all the prettiness that happened while they were being protected will not only come back and eat at them, it more than likely will eat at those who protected them. How could it do anything else? No one can put away a hurt that they have done to someone forever. They will carry it always, wondering at times what they have done. I think that in fact this is what an organization called Peacemakers often times touts, that wrongs need to be fixed or they will overcome you. I have to admit that perhaps they do have some ideas right, but they still have ideas that are dangerous for the common human, such as their peacemaking guards placed around churches to keep the peace. These guards whose ideas who are easily influenced by their leaders because surely their leaders would only tell the truth. Sounds so much like a time in our history when there were leaders and their "guards" or "police" to watch the masses. A time in our history that many of our fathers or grandfathers fought against such a tyranny.

Conclusion: Always remember to follow your heart, not others. Always question, never just accept, for to do so gives others a power over you that is not only bad for you, but bad for them as well.

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." -Thomas Jefferson