There is much that perplexes me about this world and one of the issues has to do with the human response to influence and persuasion. We don’t know everything. We don’t even know everything we need to know about just our little corners of the universe. We do assume.

I’ve watched how an issue gets put out front for people to decide their  feelings about and am not any longer surprised to see that for every view there is an equally passionate opposite view. When the matter seems cut and dry and completely unambiguous, I am still amazed that people passionately take a position in favor of the most unsupportable conclusions.

People can be persuaded. They can be influenced. The results are sometimes really disconcerting.

In the end, it can’t matter so much what others believe since it’s prudent for people to do their own work and sort things out. In a very many things, it’s tempting to trust a person or personality and then adopt their views. Despite that Christian scripture specifically warns against that, people get confused and think they can adopt a trusting attitude based on someone’s trust position. This is easy to do, especially since one expects that persons in positions of trust have been vetted and in fact can be trusted.  Trusting no one is called paranoia and that’s looked down upon. Trust me.

It’s work to do this right. It’s death or poison to do it wrong and get nailed by the positioning of a wolf in the flock who you let in. This leads to serious problems.

Those with a tendency to trust too quickly get burned. Those with a tendency simply not to trust get frozen out. Like well engineered machinery it appears that there is a working tolerance that demands a narrow road between being overly trusting and overly suspicious.

I’ve seen people with wrong views be persuaded differently. I’ve seen people with positive views have their peace and their beliefs taken away.

What is the difference?

Those who have their peace and correct beliefs taken away are likely always the result of  ignorance of the influences that work against them. I propose that this pattern gets people derailed:

They trust someone who has deceived them. The fraud is discovered. Now the trust level reset but the mischief isn’t over. Next, the belief system the now discredited person professed is open to scrutiny. It just happens that there are those who have lost favor with the belief system who have eagerly produced corrosive writings aimed at dissolving trust in one or more key bits of the belief system. They don’t have to knock down the whole thing. Just weaken a support. Remove faith in a foundational element. Create reasonable doubt. If the corrosion is presented sufficiently well, then the recipient of that poison will seek more. Then it’s just a matter of time and circumstance.

So why does this work against some while others are seemingly impervious?

I don’t know for sure, but I think the answers are found in analysis of gardening.

If you want to grow a successful garden then eventually you can if you provide for one. It’s simple at it’s core, but still it works better the more you know and apply to what keeps garden plants happy.

First you have an idea what you expect out of the garden. So you find out what needs done. Can you use the dirt or sand or rocks or planters that you have? What sort of drainage, sun, shade, temperature, wind exposure, and chemical aspects of the soil need to be provided? When is the growing season? What are the watering needs?

This stuff depends on what you want to grow and on where you live. You prepare a place that will support your garden aspirations. You plant seeds or plants or bulbs, or roots or cuttings. You protect them. You  nourish them. You weed and cultivate and water them. As needed you thin and trim and otherwise manage them.

It’s all for nothing if you don’t enjoy the processes. Of course there are people who simply want the fruits of a garden and are annoyed by the processes. They can still get a harvest, but those who love the gardening experience and its results will lose a significant amount of the benefit of having a garden by replacing it with trips to the farmers market. Those who don’t enjoy it might not want to be bothered.  Weeds will take over. The water bill will be a matter of concern to them. The dirt that’s tracked into the house and the loss of that space and the stolen time that the garden demands will be resented.

If you can imagine in advance what you want the garden to be and produce, then you have hope. If you follow through with the tasks and see to the needs of the venture, then you have exercised faith because it all was done with the expectation of something yet unrealized, yet unseen. If you love the process and the thing you’re creating then you have all three of the essential elements of success, assuming you have the garden plot and means to follow through. Without any one of those elements, your venture probably falls apart.

So how are people who have a positive view of true things deprived of that?

Well, how does one lose one’s garden?

Gardens, to be successful, are not self starting. They have to be planned, provided for, and harvested.

This is equally true for doctrinal fruit. It is not true however,  for weeds. They volunteer to ruin your life. They can grow out of a crack in a rock with no fertilizer, no water, and without regard to being walked on. They are hardy and they’ll stay healthy green when the nursery stock is shriveled up. My back yard would be entirely claimed by thorn laden black berry plants within two years of neglect. Blackberries make a great pie, but anyone familiar with that weed knows that the harvest season is short and the land occupied by the thorns is useless for anything else.

Faith stealing and belief destroying narratives do not require planning or vision in order to be allowed in. In my yard the war against encroachment is never ending, though it abates somewhat during the winter when there is no garden for them to challenge.  The invaders are still there. They just don’t waste their ammo. Meanwhile, they do expand their roots.

In matters of religious faith, those most vulnerable are those least invested and least tested. A gardener who is well read and has much experience will recognize trouble early and be able to fend it off A gardener who is present and engaged will catch weeds and other problems along the way whereas a detached gardener is more likely to find weeds choking out vegetables. To that gardener it ends up looking like a big gamble. They lament the time and money they spent for their garden that they put as little into as possible as soon as it has problems.

Those whose belief system is kept fortified with experiences and shored up with knowledge are probably also mingling in some fashion with other gardeners (believers) who are serious about whatever thing they plant and harvest. They meet, they talk, they share, they warn, and they support each other.

The casual gardener does little of that. They go it alone. Them and the internet.

In matters of faith, if that faith is based on things that really are correctly understood, then the faith can be eroded by doubt. Doubt looks for its confirmation just as optimistic anticipation looks for it’s own. We end up seeing what we look for.

My father brought home big fish. He knew what he was doing when he went fishing.

I was not a successful fisherman. I not only didn’t know  much, I also didn’t have enthusiasm for it and then I didn’t catch fish.

The biggest difference between the successful and the disappointed is that gulf between their efforts and their harvest.

You can take shortcuts. Just go to the markets and get your fruits and vegetables. There is no shame in it and it’s generally cheaper and takes less time. It will not make you a gardener though. You still won’t have those honed abilities to produce your own food.

In matters of faith regarding eternal matters, the metaphor breaks down. In respect to that faith, and hope and love, we actually can not substitute for those at the market. We grow our own, so to speak. If we don’t, then the disappointments begin early and won’t relent.

A person of faith must have hope of the desirable outcome. For Christians, that means they want to succeed and  retain their eternal inheritance.  It means they learn doctrine and follow it. No one buys their way. If  so, it’s all fake, at least where that individual is concerned. That has no bearing on the doctrines any more than your attitude about gardening has a thing to do with the nature of gardening. That attitude just affects you.

Real gardeners know that there are interactions the get you and your clothes dirty. It doesn’t stop them. They learn how to clean up.

True gardeners know that there are all sorts of ways nature will hurt your garden if it can. They also know that there are numerous ways nature will benefit your garden if you will take advantage of them. They do.

True gardeners learn that there are preparation stages, growth stages, harvest and maintenance stages, and seasons that all must be recognized for what they are.

True gardeners know that some plants don’t work next to other plants. They don’t bemoan this, but instead they make accomodations.

True gardeners become industrious, clever, and they anticipate. They recognize patterns and adapt.

True gardeners know that what makes one plant happy will compromise a different plant.

This all applies to true believers and disciples.

On the other hand, those who are in it  without being willing to adopt good attitudes will fall. Rain, sun, wind, bugs, disease, timing, weeds, and accidents all can undo your hard work in a garden. With the right attitude, you regroup. Maybe you even replant. Otherwise you either do nothing or complain and do the wrong things.

You find excuses and you round up sympathetic supporters if you want to quit. You find answers and tape the collective wisdom if you want to continue.

If you want excuses, then maybe some plants that have desirable attributes also have poisonous leaves or invite slugs or snakes and you can round up warnings. Maybe your children will get poisoned by a plant or bit by a spider or sickened by germ in the dirt. Maybe maybe maybe. It would not be hard to kill a person’s enthusiasm for gardening if they doubted the value of it anyway. Then they read about alternate uses for the space. Alternate and better uses! Yes!

Why waste the money, the water, and the time?

And then you find out  that someone you know and trusted who was also a gardener, was just buying nursery stock and using it to mask their secret crop of marijuana and psychodelic mushrooms. You discover that others in the gardening club were also growing plants of ill repute.

Taken with the anti gardening articles and books that you dived into rather than gardening books, now you have reason enough to skip the whole sordid hobby.

No more canning sessions and drying fruit  and making jam! No more planting, pruning, weeding, feeding, watering, and fretting over that plot of misery that never really satisfied you anyway! You’re free! You let the tools  hang in the back shed and allow the grass to reclaim the garden.

And you blame who?

Well, it doesn’t matter who you blame. You are so disgusted that you don’t want to be associated with the gardening club or anything they are part of. Now you are free and no one can keep you down. Now that you think of it, why are you involved in home cooking or food storage or any of the other nonsense that the gardeners like to do?

Time for a little fast food, frozen pre prepared food, and chips.

You’ve been deconverted.