You have too much faith in people.
But the thing of it is, why not give the benefit of the doubt? Joyce Meyers said something on a tape I heard that helped me understand something about the whole notion of "turning the other cheek" that previously had gone against the grain of my personality. To me it was a concept that felt "weak." But what she said I actually made my boyfriend listen to as well and it actually made him cry. What essentially it boiled down to was this: the point of "love thine enemy" was NOT because they were deserving, but quite practically that it was really the only way to WIN against hate. Fight fire with WATER right? Fighting fire with fire is a good way to set everything ablaze.
A while back I had a realization shortly after slamming the door in the face of someone who wanted me to sign something against gay marriage that I missed an opportunity. I personally think it is no one else's business except those being married and since straight people have been holding marriage anything but sacred I find that particular legal stand quite a bit offensive in general. I reacted before thinking about it , but later I regretted that I didn't choose a higher road.
I realized that what I OUGHT to have done was open a discussion with this person if I am serious about making my existence worthwhile in making the world a better place. I reasoned that if I had chosen instead to talk with them, there were several possible outcomes:
a) I could open my own mind to a different opinion that may have had some validity (And no matter how unlikely that may have seemed, without hearing the opposition out I am in no place to judge, right? I used to watch that TV show "The Practice" and was surprised to find that I was swayed on some opinions that I held pretty strongly before hearing some perspectives that I had not previously considered on that show.)
b) I could use that same reasoning to try and share my point of view with the petitioner and perhaps change HIS mind, or at least give him some food for thought instead of leaving him thinking I was rude to him and adding fuel to the fire and giving him more reason to perpetuate hate and misunderstanding.
c) At the very least, even if neither of the above happened and we were unable to come to some meeting of the minds, I could delay him in his route, effectively preventing him from garnering more support in the community for an idea that I didn't agree with. I can see that as productive and it would have left me feeling much better that I had at least tried and maybe succeeded in slowing the progress of hate and I wouldn't have been muttering about things in an unpleasant mood after the encounter the way I was.
The path I took did nothing for anyone except put me out of sorts and only left me in an unpleasant mood. Consequently, I vowed to try something different the next time something like that happened, and I actually took a few minutes to talk with the Jehovah's witnesses that came by my house a few months ago with that experience in mind. It started out as an exercise for me, but it turned out to be a surprisingly good one. I find that I enjoy talking with LaKeisha when she comes by about every other week now, and I daresay I may have even made a new friend.
Turns out she is not at all like I would have expected and though I am far from "converted" I am not even thinking that is actually the goal of what she does. She speaks of the kingdom to come, and I tend to speak of our responsibility to the kingdom as it is now instead of looking to afterwards and I think she is not the zealot I would classified her as before taking the time to talk with her.
Sorry for the tangent, but I think that faith is rewarded more often than we know. And it isn't as if it needs to be BLIND faith in this case of disappearing dorm food. Its at least worth a try and can't hurt any, right? If the thieving hasn't abated after that then more punitive measures can be looked into at that point also.
