What if, just for today......
I read an article the other day. The title was "Why Are Americans So Divided?". The article was listed in Apple News, but a publication I was unfamiliar. Division is a terrible problem for our culture, so I thought I would like perspective from another source, sure, I'll read it.
The article started innocuous stated facts and studies, but then it took a turn. The author landed on opinion from articles and suppositions from other authors from as early as 1912 to conclude the problem with America's divide is conservatives want to control liberals. Do you find this conclusion nauseating? We all have our faults. We all have our eccentricities.
When we get right down to brass tacks, our solutions have to climb above blaming. How does blaming fix the divide? Blaming furthers the divide with resentment and frustration.
Americans have it good! We can express opinion and be different. We're so far removed from the cost of that self expression that we take it for granted. We want everyone to just adopt our ideology without consideration of their autonomy or sentiance. We become annoyed at the thought of even listening to someone who doesn't think the way we do. And if we are confronted with the idea they present and we don't like it, we become offended.
"They" don't look like me, talk like me, work like me, speak like me, dress like me, eat like me, think like me, behave like me, smell like me, vote like me or [whatever] like me so I am offended.
Christ Follower, I would to share with you a quote. "A person's wisdom yields patience, it is to one's glory to overlook an offense." This quote is from the bible. The reference is Proverbs 19:11. What if, just for today we choose to not be offended. When the other person is offended, what if just for today, we choose not to be offended. When we hear things that we don't want to hear, what if just for today, we choose not to be offended. When we are confronted with lies, what if just for today, we choose not to be offended.
We know the is no righteousness in us. None. Every bit of righteousness we can muster amounts to a pile of filthy rags. The original language of the text equates these rags to menstrual cloths. Every single bit of my good is menstrual rags. When I am offended by another's actions or thoughts or words, what am I comparing the offense to? To Jesus? To You? To Me?
Christ redeems us. Not to be a better version of ourselves, but to be a new creature. We are regenerated, old things are passed away. Being offended by someone else's filthy rags is hypocritical. No?
When we read Proverbs 13:10 we see that pride breeds quarrels. If I am living of life of contention and quarreling, pride is the source. Pride is deeply rooted in our dna. It is part of who we are. Pride is the reason we are looking at other peoples' pile of filthy rags and getting offended.
What if just for today we choose to not be offended. Try it tomorrow, too.
