Is it hard to believe someone has changed?

  We just finished the 5th Sunday of Lent and we're heading towards what many Christian denominations refer to as "holy week." 

Lent is a time for reflection and preparation and I've been doing a lot of thinking about my personal life as well as my professional one. Let's face it, they're really supposed to fit together, aren't they?

Tonight's "evening prayer" scripture reading was John 9:18-41 where, after Jesus has given a man (who had been born blind) his site, the religious leaders still refused to believe that Jesus was sent from God. They had a hard time believing the man who regained his site was the same guy who had been blind his whole life! 

I think this reading relates to life in the office very well. We have a hard time believing that someone we know to be lazy or not good at their job suddenly started working hard or suddenly started performing well. It's like we can't believe what we're seeing, let alone what we're hearing.  

I can appreciate your being skeptical. I've often feel the same way. We've seen people perform a turnaround that hasn't lasted before. But as Christians, shouldn't we give the person the benefit of the doubt? Shouldn't we at least be happy that at that moment they performed well?

This is hard for us because of how the brain is wired. It only takes one time of anything for us to say "always" or "never". It's like the hot stove thing. It only takes touching a hot stove one time to learn our lesson and we don't touch it again. Whether the burner is red or not, we're always careful around the stove.

I think this issue gets to the very root of our faith. We ask God to forgive us and believe we're sorry for whatever sins we've committed. And He does.  Yet we humans find it hard to give someone another chance.

Just as I'm cautious around a hot stove, I'm certainly cautious around someone who's hurt me, or violated my trust, or who hasn't performed as I wanted them to in the past. I'm trying hard to become more charitable but it's very hard. I don't want to get hurt again.

What do you do to wrestle with this issue?