Trust Noone

I was late at learning how to tie my shoes... somewhere in the middle of kindergarten. Wiggling my ears just sort of happened... one day I could do it. Typing took a while to get the hang of. So did using an adding machine. Pig Latin was pretty easy. Didn't take too long to grasp the alphabet in sign language either.
I do not know when or where I learned to keep my gloves up. I know it didn't happen in a moment. I do not know how many times I have let my guard down and eventually gotten burned. I do not know how many have given me a smile to my face and a knife to my back. I do not know how many have extracted my trust through a straw, only to later spit in my face. But I have learned well to keep my cards close, to trust noone. Give people time, access to your life, insight into your emotions and it is inevitable that you will get burned.
Jesus knows all about this. He was betrayed and let down by people in multiple ways and at multiple levels. In the Garden of Gethsemane, after He prayed and as the soldiers surrounded Him, everybody ran away. Judas gave Him up to the Roman authorities and Peter denied He ever knew Him. But Jesus was never guarded. You didn't have to peel Him like an onion to find out what was really on His heart. But John's Gospel tells us that He did not entrust Himself to them, for He knew what was in men. The difference is... He was never bitter. He held no grudges.
Therefore, if I want to be Christlike in my relationships, just how does that effect just who does, and who does not, get a backstage pass to my life? I'm not sure. Jesus loved everyone, even let Judas deep into His life. He restored Peter. He backed off James and John when they wanted to call down fire from heaven on His enemies. Doesn't sound like He lived by the ol' "fool me twice, shame on me" rule of thumb.
I am not Divine. I do not have omniscient insight. I am sick to death of the fickleness of people. But I know that it is important that I unlearn this tendency that I have taken a lifetime to develop. I must learn to trust people again. I must stop waiting for the other shoe to drop. I want to love like Jesus loves, forgive like He forgives, approach others the way He would want me to. And I know that as He lives His life in me, He can make it happen. I will follow Jesus. I will live righteously by the power of the Holy Spirit. I will trust Christ to help me to learn how to trust others and how much to do so.