By: Pastor Sandy Huntsman
Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the USA’s Federal Reserve Bank said of Americans in 1997, “I am afraid that too many have given in to the thinking of irrational exuberance.” An assumption by definition is “a proposition that is taken for granted, as if it were true based upon presupposition without preponderance of the facts.”
False assumptions can lead to wrong conclusions, and wrong conclusions can lead to wrong actions. In some cases, we can laugh at the outcome of our false assumptions. In other cases, false assumptions can be deadly.
“A professional carpet-layer stepped back to survey a newly installed carpet. Reaching into his shirt pocket for a cigarette, he realized the pack was missing. At the same time he noticed a lump under the carpet in the middle of the room, about the size of the missing cigarette pack.
There was no way to retrieve his cigarette pack from under the attached carpet without ripping everything up and starting over. Finally, he decided to beat the object flat, thereby destroying any evidence of his mistake.
Gathering his tools, the carpet layer walked out to his truck. There on the seat of his truck was the mislaid pack of cigarette. As he lit one up, the homeowner hurried out of the house and asked, “Hey, have you seen my son’s gerbil?”(Braude’s Treasury of Wit and Humor, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Hills, NJ.)
Most of us are living with some false assumptions. Our parents, our teachers, our culture, the media, all have input into our lives. And some of those inputs are false assumptions.
For instance, many young people have the false assumption that a good marriage is built on a diamond ring, good feelings and compatibility. Such false assumptions lead to the wrong conclusion, that nothing else is needed to build a good marriage. And the result is passivity after marriage, which often leads to disappointment, disillusionment and even divorce.
On the other hand, those who are married and experience a rewarding marriage know that hard work, forgiveness and self-sacrifice must be part of the equation for a good marriage. False assumptions lead to wrong conclusions, which lead to wrong actions.
All of us need to work very hard to continually evaluate our thought processes, question our assumptions, and research the facts before forming our opinions and choosing a course of action. Over the next few weeks we will consider some common “false assumptions.”
Pastor Sandy Huntsman
Boca Glades Baptist Church
www.bocaglades.org