There is no way to avoid looking naive to the outside world, childish even, while remaining a Christian. A Christian is commanded to have an open heart, with all the risk that entails. So much of our lives must look like a little child meeting a new person and walking away with the thought "I have a new friend", like a kid who doesn't understand the cost of such a relationship and so the seeming impossibility of forming one so quickly. Yet the Christian is COMMANDED to love, to see as Jesus saw, to exist in the midst of vulnerability. And like the child who is hurt by the other's inability or unwillingness to return their feelings, the Christian is hurt by a life that doesn't reflect God's love as their heart does. But the child is confused by their pain, they don't understand why they love so quickly or are so rarely responded to as they think they should be. The Christian feels the same pain, but without the confusion.
A committed Christian knows the horrible truth of the Cross. They know that life is still dominated by sin, a sin that murdered our Lord when He entered this world. And so there is no naivete in their response to life. It is a conscious choice. We don't have to like it, or even make peace with it, but we cannot honestly say we don't understand it. Innocent as doves and sly as vipers. Move the world around like a chess board, but with God and other people as your ultimate ends. Be smarter than sin, but never respond to the world as sin demands, but only as God demands. Love, love, love, love, love everyone you get a chance to love, whether they can understand it or not, whether they are able to respond in kind or not. Understand the constraints of life and human nature, forgive and accept when others are unable to relate to you as you are to them. Know the depth and horror of sin. Be not confused or afraid. Respond as that child. Reason as an adult.
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