A few days ago I was at the park with a group from my social work agency. As I was pushing him on the swing and talking with him, one of our child clients saw something that caused him distress.
'That's a bad word someone wrote over there," he said.
"Where?" I asked.
"Don't you see it?"
"No."
We kept at this for way longer than was necessary, and the boy became more and more agitated that I couldn't see what he did. I tried explaining about different lines of sight, unclear directions, all the things there were at a park where something could be written.
None of it made a difference. He was distressed that I couldn't see something that he found blindingly obvious. At one point he despaired there was something wrong with him for seeing things other people couldn't, and then I saw it.
One of our local artists had tagged some of the playground equipment in spraypaint with the letters A-S-S.
A little older and more jaded about urban graffiti than my companion, I didn't share his moral umbrage but our patience had paid off. At least we both saw the same thing.
It seems sometimes these days that we all agree there's only one right way to see things -- and it's not the way those other people see it. We fight like crazy, call each other names,and try to argue one another into seeing things the way we do. In the end we're further than ever from agreement, and we often walk away from fracases, head held high, chip on shoulder, convinced of our rightness more than ever and viewing our opposition with disdain and contempt.
Maybe we're doing this wrong.
Maybe we see things differently, big stuff, little stuff and even foundational stuff, because we're meant to.
The writers of the Hebrew Scriptures depicted heaven as a court where God would make a declaration, and one of the angels would take an opposing view. In the ensuing debate, deeper truths would emerge that everyone could see, agree to, and support.
There's no suggestion from Scripture that God took affront to what arguably was a challenge to his own wisdom. There's no indication that God did anything but consider the adversarial viewpoint, give the other party a chance to make his case, and then weigh those arguments and their supporting evidence on their own merits.
No, we probably won't change anyone's mind this way. But if we take the time to see things from one another's eyes, we can end a lot of division and heartache, and we can all grow a little wiser in the process.
Copyright © 2020 by David Learn. Used with permission.
Tweet
No comments:
Post a Comment