We exhaust ourselves (and waste time) with assumptions …

A few days ago I saw a man sitting at a table in a Starbucks. Upon closer observation, I detected an ever-so-slight rhythm to a barely noticeable bouncing movement of his whole body.

Just as I was about to settle in on an assumption that he was groovin’ to a tune provided by the now visible cord attached to earbuds, I stopped myself.

I wasn’t going to allow myself to make an assumption.

I reminded myself that I’ve seen similar movements that had nothing to do with enjoying some music. For example, many years ago, when my mother had a blood clot in her leg that would eventually kill her, she would sit and, because of the tremendous pain, would rock side-to-side with her eyes closed.

If you didn’t know her situation and observed her from a distance, you might have made the assumption she was groovin’ to a tune.

She wasn’t, she was suffering.

The exercise of observing the man in Starbucks wasn’t an important experience. If I would have assumed he was moving in response to listening to music and was wrong, it would have been inconsequential. I share the story because most of us habitually make assumptions that result in bad judgment that devours our time, exhausts us, and can have some costly consequences.

Harold Kellock tells a story about how, on one of his European tours, the master magician and locksmith Harry Houdini found himself locked in by his own thinking. After he had been searched and manacled in a Scottish town jail, the old jailer shut him in a cell and walked away. Houdini quickly freed himself from his shackles and then tackled the cell lock. But despite all his efforts, the lock wouldn’t open. Finally, ever more desperate but completely exhausted, he leaned against the door — and it swung open so unexpectedly that he nearly fell headlong into the corridor. The jailer had not locked it.

Besides wasting our time and exhausting us, making assumptions can also wound relationships from bad judgment and lead to negative outcomes when applied in our decision-making for our jobs, making financial or legal decisions, assessing our health, or when needing to understand others.

Assumptions routinely lead to poor judgments.

Let me give you two ways you can avoid assumptions. In the big picture of life, and all the important elements relating to it, you have all the truth you need provided to you by God in the Bible. You don’t have to assume about why you exist, what your purpose is, and a host of other essential components to life because God reveals the truth about such things in scripture. In that case, being a student of the Bible equips you to make wise decisions about life.

Finally, in your daily interactions with people, places, and things, you can avoid bad judgment from assumptions by taking the time to ask the questions necessary for understanding. When you’re assuming something, you’re not exercising understanding, you’re making a guess. But like my mom swaying in pain, you can’t believe everything you see, and we all know you can’t believe everything you hear. So instead of assuming, ask the questions that will adequately educate you so that you can make wise decisions.

You don’t have to waste your time and exhaust yourself with bad assumptions. Become a student of the Bible so that you know truth, and ask all the questions to necessary to fill in any gaps in your understanding.

Scotty