By Danny Minton

It was inevitable that what took place in North Carolina in 1944 would someday happen. White students from Duke University drove onto the campus of an all-Black North Carolina college on a Sunday morning. Sunday was chosen because the students knew the police and most of the town would be in church and would not be able to interfere. The black students were waiting as the white students entered the building and immediately locked and chained the doors shut, keeping anyone from stopping the ensuing rumble.

Other white students sped to the campus and made every effort to enter the building. Finding the doors shut and locked, they tried to reach the windows at the top of the building but still were unable to break the barriers. Finally, after more than an hour, the doors were unlocked, and the students exited the building. The black students had totally destroyed the white students. Afterward, one of the students made the comment, “It was just a bunch of God’s children horsing around with a basketball.”

Making assumptions without knowing the facts can hurt relationships of all kinds. I see it all the time. Someone hears a rumor and passes it on. It keeps getting passed along until it’s often blown completely out of proportion. It’s at that point that things can fall apart. We just witnessed this in our current elections. False information, half-truths, and misleading ads were thrown around by both political parties, and spreading unproven information made it so people didn’t know who to believe. It resulted in one of the most negative elections that I can remember. Worst of all, people assumed their political favorites were right, and everyone else was wrong, which divided people even more.

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other sites are full of misinformation. It’s full of people’s opinions which may or may not be based on fact. One email can become viral in the matter of minutes, true or not. That’s why I never forward emails or information unless I know it’s absolutely true, and only if I think it’s worthwhile. I know I will have 10 years of bad luck, I’ll not receive 3 blessings in the next 24 hours, I’ll miss out on the unexpected check in the mail, and that because I don’t forward it I probably don’t love Jesus, but I’ll take that chance. It’s human nature to pass on things that “sound true,” especially if we want them to be, without taking time to discover whether they really are.

We should always take time to seek the truth before mindlessly passing on information that may be wrong or misleading. We should learn to look to reliable sources to truly know the truth. Personally, our house tries to follow what Joshua told the people centuries ago. The people were to be faced with a world that would try to pull them away from God. His words were not a command, but a reminder that they had to choose who they would serve. “Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:14-15 (NASB77)

No matter where you find yourself in life; no matter if you agree with what is happening around you or not; seek out the truth and never just assume that others or even you are right. Learn to trust God and serve him no matter what circumstances surround you. Live your life according to the ways of Christ as told in the Gospel accounts, and everything will be okay, no matter where your life journey takes you. Finally, here are a few words from a book, “I assume,” you haven’t read in a while. It tells us how to listen to those who try their best to turn us from God. “Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals – these are the very things that destroy them.” Jude 1:10

Most importantly, we should always listen to our God, who never leads us astray, and that is not an assumption; that’s a fact. Check it out.

Danny Minton, a member of Southern Hills Church of Christ, is a hospital chaplain