Do you remember the old acronym of the seventies, K.I.S.S., “Keep It Simple Stupid”? Well, that advice works for me. For whatever reason, the simpler something is, the easier it is for me to comprehend and adapt.
These days, when I go to the grocery store, I look at the “ingredients” on the back of the packaging. I want to know what’s in the bread. Of course, the print is so small that I am required to stack two pairs of readers on the bridge of my nose to magnify the words large enough to even guess. Even then, I neither know how to pronounce them nor what they are. I have developed a personal plan to help me choose between two loaves of bread. I simply look at the ingredients list and choose the one that has the simplest, or fewest, ingredients.
What I have found interesting is that the simpler and fewer the ingredients, the more they inversely impact the price. Do you not wonder how putting fewer ingredients in the bread causes the price to increase? But this blog is about the differences between us.
When it comes to politics and religion, people have a hard time getting along. Both lend themselves to fence building. We tend to defend our own beliefs against those of our neighbors. It seems to me that espousing our beliefs throws us into a defensive mode. If we cannot convince our opponent that we are right and they are wrong, we devise a way to devalue and demonize them. We do our best to eradicate their offensive opinions from contaminating our relationship. As a result, the relationship becomes devoid of the deeper benefits that their friendship offers. At best, a “no man’s land” is established, causing more distrust than trust.
If our democracy falls, it will be because we have lost the capacity to show compassion and grace in living out our convictions. Instead, we vehemently exert our self-ascribed strength to convince the “opposition” that they are unworthy of our unflinching loyalty to their well-being.
In this late stage of life, I have finally come to accept that my theological views are correct. I’m “righter” now than I was ten years ago. Hopefully, by this time next year, my theology will be “righter” than it is today.
However, I do not yet possess the Truth about life, but I believe the Truth of Life possesses me. When I engage in theological discussions, I welcome the views of those who disagree with me. Because I know that somewhere in the discussion, I will either be affirmed in what I believe or will be challenged to research more deeply what I say I believe. In every encounter, I will be carried closer to the Divine Truth. I deeply need to discern the difference between what I think God said and meant and what God actually said and meant.
Even if their view is based entirely on what they concocted in the vacuum of their own self-protecting opinion, I am challenged and pushed to review and assess my biblical and theological understanding of God and His Creation.
Today, I would say that my theology is not wrong, but I must also acknowledge that it is not yet fully developed. The truth is that there are not many opinions, different from mine, that I have not found at least some points of truth from which I gain insight or conviction of error.
I live somewhere between right and wrong, light and dark. That’s not a place of peace and security! Those who live in that black and white, right or wrong, do so out of fear. And that is not a good thing. That’s where fear and insecurity originate. It is the place where prejudice and segregation commence. I have friends who build tall fences around themselves of absolutes. Such defenses fence out more than they fence in. It makes it incredibly difficult to learn something new or gain a deeper understanding of God.
The differences between you and a neighbor should make you more dependent on God, not defensive over what you believe about God. The person whose beliefs annoy you or provoke you is there by God’s design. Not to rile you into “to the death” combat. They are there as instruments of God’s grace to teach you something about yourself and, more importantly, about Him and His love for the whole of humanity.
If you only live in the security of the fort, you will never discover the wonders of the frontier.
I may be starting to get what our brother and apostle Paul, meant when he challenges us to live a life of love, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known.” (Corinthians 13:12, CSB)
And then he advised us to, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves…” (Philippians 2:3, NIV)
Photo – A beautiful stormy day at Tybee Island, Georgia, but not much fun for the family.
Baldwin Heirlooms 