Blog Archives
Love, Hate and Disagreement
One thing I love, and wish people could do more of, is openly disagree in a civil fashion. Whenever I get into a discussion or debate with someone on a blog or in person I never enter in with the belief that something I will say is going to magically sway them from their side to mine. That is not a healthy way to view discussion because if your goal is to sway them then you will wind up being very frustrated.
I have seen this occur in my blog reading and commenting time and time again. An author will post their views and then anyone who opposes them gets trashed and demeaned. That is not good. I believe that every person has room to be wrong and that every person is at least partly wrong in their positions. Why? Because everyone is imperfect. Opinions are not facts and are not based on facts. Sure someone will quote facts but what they are really spouting is their interpretation of the facts. Everyone should recognize that they have some room to be corrected and grow and be stretched and at the very least take an opposing view and chew on it.
Sometimes bloggers have really healthy interaction with their commenters and when they do it is beautiful. As a church staff person I have always wondered what it would be like to work in a environment where sharing differences on non-essential theology and methodology was not only allowed but encouraged. Too many times I have seen senior pastors either force their staff to agree with them or push them out when their was disagreement. Worse yet I have seen senior pastors completely avoid issues so that they will not get into a deep discussion.
Now don’t get me wrong a public disagreement between staff can be divisive…… but maybe…… what if we modeled it in a Christian way?
What if instead of shutting down or fighting we sought to understand the other side through a different perspective. Not agreeing with the other side but trying to understand the path that got them there so that we can understand the foundation before we judge the conclusion. And all the while we are not bashing or trashing people because they don’t think like us.
And do not misunderstand me to be saying truth is relative and that what one person believes is ok for them and not for me and we just need to accept. Believe me I believe what I believe and if I think you are wrong I think you are wrong but I want to know why you have arrived at the belief that directly opposes mine. I do not want to write you off.
Now consider the impact. I minister in a community with a very diverse group people and pastors. I have church members and other pastors in the community that are Republicans and I have church members and other pastors in the same community that are Democrats. Now we all know how confrontational these two sides can get. But can we say that as Christians we handle our differences any different? One church uses traditional music and one church uses modern “rock” worship and the leaders post blogs essentially damning the other church’s actions. I could go on and on with examples. No wonder people act with such selfishness an hate when the ones who are to love do not model love.
Maybe if we could begin to see where our opposition was right we could work towards a understanding of how to work through and around what we are doing wrong.
PATIENCE
In today’s “give it to me now” culture, Patience is a lost art form. We want our food faster, our information faster our degrees faster and our success faster. But not only do we want it faster we always want it our way. The motto for this generation could be “give it to me my way, right away”. But the Bible tells us that patience is included in the fruit of the Spirit. That means in the course of our spiritual lives and in our journey to become closer and more like Christ that we must cultivate this virtue within ourselves. John F Newton said “Be patient enough to live one day at a time as Jesus taught us letting yesterday go and leaving tomorrow till it arrives” . These are great words of wisdom that we should take note of. But let’s not ignore the most important authority, The Bible.
Here are a few verses on Patience
Romans 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience….
Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
2 Thessalonians 3:5 And may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.
I want to look at a few different aspects of patience. Adel Bestavros said “Patience with others is Love, patience with Self is hope and Patience with God is faith” I think this sets up a great framework on which to look at Patience.
Patience with OTHERS is LOVE- Let’s face it everyone screws up and dissapoints at some point. As we go through life those closest to us will make mistakes. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:4 that love is patient. When you love someone you are able to look past their faults and realize that they have possess qualities that make them worthy of your devotion. Great friendships, marriages and families are built around this idea.
Patience with SELF is HOPE – This is an area I struggle in. We all have aspirations dreams and desires for ourselves and no one likes to fail. Yet time and time again as we try to achieve what we believe we want we fall short. Whether these shortcomings are in academics, athletics, romance or in our profession it matters not everyone of us will wind up falling flat on our face. These failures take there toll on us and we can beat ourselves up. We can’t understand and begin to question our self worth. Patience gives us hope. A hope that if not today then maybe tomorrow or maybe further down the road but it will happen and can happen. Our dreams may only come to fruition with much dedication and work but the hope of another day will push us on.
Patience with GOD is FAITH- Wow…. How many times have you demanded an answer from God. Or expected God to give you what you wanted when you wanted. Yeah…. me too. But god doesn’t work on our timeline He has much greater things in mind. The hard thing for us is that He doesn’t send us a memo or share with us a PowerPoint demonstrating his 5 step plan to get us where we need to be. Rather, He asks us to trust in Him fully and wait and see. Patient faith can be one of the most excruciating things to master but it is one of the most valuable
The common thread in all of these is sacrifice. To truly practice patience you need to deny yourself. We don’t like sacrifice that is why patience is out of style. Again we want to have everything our way right away, We are self absorbed and until we learn to let that go we are in for major issues.
Someone to stand
A friend posted this on youtube this morning and I found it moving
What we have here is the vision of someone to get an eclectic group of people from around the world and unify them in one voice and one song. What is sad is that as a Christian I am convicted that we are not that unifying force. No quite the opposite it seems that we cannot stop infighting long enough to focus on our message and purpose. My friend Gman blogged about the whining of churches. This is an example of how the infighting isn’t centered inside individual churches but amongst the church worldwide. What has to be done to become unified? What could we accomplish? I certainly hope that I get to see a great revival in my lifetime. I desperately want to be part of a massive movement of God. It is so obvious that the fields are ripe for harvest. in this day and age of disenchantment and cynicism people need something to hold onto something concrete that will not fail. The only thing they will find to fill that void is the love of Christ.
