The guilty walk a crooked path; the innocent travel a straight road. – Proverbs 21:8 NLT

We often make the mistake of attaching righteousness to personality.

These are the good people. We trust them. We like what they do.

Those are the bad people. We recognize their schemes. We hate what they do.

The old westerns spell this out for us. The good guys wear white. The bad guys wear black.

The problem is that life is more complex than an old western.

Sometimes the bad guy wears white to take advantage of our preconceptions

Sometimes the good guy has a purple scarf, and we don’t know what that means.

Sometimes we learn in real time that we actually like black hats, or that black and white go great together.

Life involves ambiguity and learning.

We get to discover that we were once wrong.

We get to change our minds.

And when we do, we often see that our interpretations of guilty and innocent weren’t as simple or accurate as we once thought.

Our tribalized logic shows up in our politics. We’ve all seen videos of people presented with quotes from their political enemy, which they passionately denounce. When it’s revealed that their favored candidate said it, they immediately find its wisdom.

The proverb shows us a stronger logic.

We do not see guilt in who a person is. We see it in what they do.

The guilty walk a crooked path. They wander from the righteous route. They detour from the right way of doing things to suit their own purposes. Then they lie about it and try to convince you that the path was straight, that they were never in a ditch, that your vision is blurring, and you’re the one who is swerving.

The innocent, on the other hand, have no reason to deviate from the plan. They can walk publicly because they aren’t breaking any rules, and they’re doing exactly what they said they would do. They have nothing to hide. They don’t have to hustle, or spin, or persuade you of anything. They can tell the truth

We should always pay attention whenever a new person shows up in a family, or organization who reveals that everyone else is lying. They have an accusation for everyone. They have a conflict with everyone.

And it’s always possible that all of their accusations are true.

Maybe they world has conspired against them.

Maybe their enemies have it out for them.

Maybe this group of previously respected people are all phonies.

Maybe they have stolen all their best ideas from this one guy.

Maybe he keeps it real while everyone else is a fake.

Maybe he’s a warrior for truth, and liberty, and justice, while everyone else is about lies, and traps, and corruption.

Or maybe the one person is lying.

And look, as the saying goes, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.

You could have a league of fiendish enemies, and still be guilty.

You may be surrounded by crooks and be the top crook.

You may face a gang of motivated enemies because you’ve earned them.

You may have surrounded yourselves with thieves and stolen from them, too.

You may be able to identify someone’s hustle because you’re a much better hustler.

Game recognize game.

And we need to be able to recognize it, too.

(Photo Credit: Monstera Production)