news flash!
disagreements happen. we're human, created with so many different pairs of eyes through which we see the world in so many different ways.
really!
once we understand that this is part of who we are, maybe we need to keep this in mind when we interact with each other.
also, maybe if we remember that this is part of who we are---that we are prone to disagree based on the amazing diversity with which God created us---maybe if we keep that in mind then people wouldn't be so mad when they misunderstand each other. maybe we wouldn't get so upset when we don't use the right words. (which words are right? who decides that?)
who's right, and who's wrong? maybe the wrong is with the person who finds fault with people who see differently. maybe the wrong is with the person who forgets that the other person will find fault with whatever they say. maybe the wrong is with the eggshells which break and reverberate through reality, warning of temper-stuous clouds breaking on the near horizon.
maybe the wrong is the original sin we have, which blinds us to the gloriously composite kaleidoscope image of God that we are failing so hard to offer up to him.
...can it NOT matter who's right and who's wrong? can we maybe get out of that mindset, and address our interactions from a common perspective---that of our shared original sin---rather than building walls between us with edgy words...?
i firmly believe that a communal dose of humble pie would help with that new communal perspective. new Communal Project: learn how to fit a detox treatment AND a mirror inside a humble pie.
2 comments:
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Thanks for the talk last night.
....maybe we need to remind each other of that talk once in a while:)
I've wondered, if original sin hadn't happened, if we would all see things God's way, and thus wouldn't have disagreements on anything (there ultimately only being one standard, God's, which of course we all fall short of, though in differing ways, obviously); whether our differing personalities and subsequent differences of opinion spring purely from that. Or, whether diversity of thought is in fact God's idea, part of His plan, somehow. (Well, of course it is part of His plan, like everything else that happens, good or ill, in this world, but I mean more by divine design than divine concurrence.)
Regardless, as Christians, if we are all mindful of our own sinfulness and imperfection, we should each recognize that we may not be right in everything we believe, and thus be open to hearing each others' opinions, and further, not think we all have to think alike on everything, that it's okay to have differences of opinion, and live with them. Alas, stubbornness and hardness of heart, themselves products of our sinful nature, prevent this from always happening. But hopefully, by God's grace, we can at least make a start. The book of Acts shows us that Peter and Paul, for example, could disagree on some things, and just let it go at that without always having to resolve disagreements by coming to a consensus, so we can learn from the early Church in that.
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