Proverbs 25:18-19

Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow,
so is the one who testifies against his neighbor as a false witness.
Like a bad tooth or a foot out of joint,
so is confidence in an unfaithful person at the time of trouble.

Hoosiers has got to be one of best movies of all time. I remember watching it (or should I say trying to watch it) for the first time. I was while my family was visiting some family up in Michigan. That was when they introduced us to Hoosiers on VHS. That movie may be the reason dad decided we needed to get a VCR. For some reason, some of the movies I love the most as an adult are the ones I couldn’t stay awake through as a kid.

One of the stronger story-lines in the movie is about Shooter. Shooter is the dad of one of the players, Everett. He’s an alcoholic who hasn’t been clean in years. He’s literally the town drunk. Coach Dale notices that he’s got a very thorough knowledge of local basketball. That, paired with his desire to help one of his players was enough to get him to try to bring shooter on as a coach.

As you can imagine, Shooter doesn’t work out so well. He gets off to a good start, but then coach gets himself intentionally thrown out of a game. And that pushes shooter back over the edge as he arrived at the next game, drunk. The coach wanted to test shooter to see if he was going to stick to this new path, and Shooter came up short. Luckily for shooter, he was able to get into a rehab facility and get clean. But, he would have a lot of work to do to be trustworthy again.

When you’re in crunch time, you want to know that the people around you aren’t going to snap under the pressure. You want to know that they can bend and flex with the wind and the rain, but that they will bounce back. They can handle the stress without destroying themselves and potentially – you.

When you put confidence in someone who is continually untrustworthy, it’s like having a cavity. This is so true. When you have someone in your life that is a constant frustration, who seems to be constantly letting you down, it’s as bad has having a cavity – or needing a bond put back in its socket.

Not only should you choose your friends wisely so you don’t find yourself surrounded with people who are going to let you down at the most critical time, you should also make sure you’re being a trustworthy friend. You ought to make sure you’re not being someone else’s cavity.