I see an awful lot of this nowadays, and it's bothering me. One person will write or say something and generalize it with the words "most," "many," and/or "all" [or the opposite of those], and then someone else will write, "No, my reason is the real reason."

Let me be up-front and admit that yes, I realize my post becomes just that. It's just like the claim that there is no absolute truth (except for the statement saying there is no absolute truth). I hope, though, that my post comes off more as a mediation grounds for the two points to duke it out over, instead of an additional "finger pointer" out there.

There are three things I would like to say:

1.) The person who comes against them is someone who is at a different point in their Christian walk.

Often, as I have seen it, people will make a statement about something they are going through or are currently seeing a lot of it happening around them. That, or they feel like they are because everyone tells them. The problem with these posts is that they are mostly not very well thought through. There are some excellent kernels of Truth in them, but they contain holes and lots of things left out. After all, writing a comprehensive thesis on everything that's wrong with the world can't be done in just one blog post, right? Well, yes and no, but that's another post altogether.

The person who comes against them is someone who is at a different point in their Christian walk. Let me offer an additional possible interpretation for Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV). What I see in this passage as one possible reading is that we should not shoot for "one side" of these balances. We shoot for the "time to laugh", saying a "time to mourn" is bad! The problem is that we need both. There is a time for both. Well, what often can happen with these posts and arguments comes from those who are on two different sides.

People often say "I understand what you're saying, BUT..." because they've gone through the other side's time; however, currently they are going through the opposite time of the poster, and the poster has not taken into account the opposing side "well enough" for them.

We just need to realize that not everyone is walking the same path as us within Christian circles. Some move at different speeds, and others move in different directions. Remember, though we have great diversity, we also have great unity within us, though! Honestly, if we can agree that a Triune God exists who became a man, Jesus Christ, who lived a sinless life and then DIED for us. God died, then was raised to life 3 days later...

I think it brings a whole lot of issues into perspective.

2.) We have become pendulums in motion instead of people at rest.

We oscillate between two extremes, each taking their own side and doing nothing but pointing out faults in the other. I've heard it said that Satan can only pervert God's good things to make them into sin. One can never have too much or too little of the true thing (I'll use the fruits of the Spirit [Gal 5:22-23] as an example), but when it's perverted into something else it can lead to issues both directions. Let me offer a few examples:

- Loving others is perverted into infatuation. Those who do not "love" others enough are considered to be selfish, uncaring, and reclusive -- those with a "heart of stone." Those who "love" others too much are considered to be clingy and struggle with lust.
- Joy can be perverted into happiness, or "feeling good." Those who don't have enough "joy" become depressed, bitter, and hateful/cynical. Those who seek too much "joy" are considered to love their own life and the things of this world too much.
- Peace is perverted into outward emotion. Those with not enough "peace" complain, whine, and are filled with doubt. Those with too much "peace" become lazy or don't care about anything around them, making them more stoic than healthily peaceful.

This can be repeated for all of them.

There is a "line" we all believe must not be crossed, but we are quick to forget that the line is not in the same place for everyone, and that it is not a "fixed line." The only thing fixed about it is its existence. Each situation we get into will be different for everyone because we are all parts of God's Body, blessed in different ways, with different skills, and coming up against different problems. Some of us face problems for the first time years after others have. Some of us have more experience when we face certain problems, so "larger scale" problems in that area are what befall us.

My point here is that we keep saying, "You're showing too much of that other side, come swing over to my side because of my arguments and you'll fix your problems!" Then we realize sooner or later that we've swung too far in the opposite direction and then swing back to the other side. Our goal should be to figure out how to come to rest in God, between the two extremes, instead of constantly throwing our own weight back and forth all the time.

3.) In our efforts to make sure the message portrayed is "the most correct one possible," we forget who we are in relation to God.

People who argue do so, in my opinion, for an excellent reason. Rarely do I find a Christian arguing so outrageously with another Christian because they want the other one to be deceived and follow Satan's plan. I mean come on, seriously. =P Normally, it's two people who think the other side is wrong and want them to go after God in truth.

We all really want our brothers and sisters to know God deeper. It's why we dialog and why we should even have blogs on here, isn't it? We're not here for dissention, but to learn how to see things from different angles and open our minds to different ways that God might be moving that we don't know.

May God actually forbid us from thinking that we are SO amazing that we know EVERY single way God could ever possibly move or cause a group of people (that we are usually not a part of) to do something for some reason.

We need to open our minds to other possibilities and admit we don't have all the answers; however, we must also remember that we cannot open our minds "too much." Being "open-minded" (as we Christians are so often considered not to be) exists primarily for the reason of finding the Truth and rejecting what is false. The goal of being open-minded is to find the answer. Tell me, if I say that gravity doesn't exist then are you being closed-minded when you say, "That's not true!" Of course not! Are you being closed-minded if you don't believe me when I tell you I flew to the moon last Thursday? The point of being open-minded is to find the Truth, and when you find it, then all other things not in that Truth must be false. Otherwise you're not really open-minded.

All that to say... we forget that God is the Truth. Not our interpretation of Him, not his, and not hers. It is God who is the Truth. He is the One from whom all Knowledge and Wisdom pours, and it will never cease to pour. We should never become so arrogant as to think that our opinion may not have something wrong with it. Thus, we should be willing to openly say, as I finish up my own post here, that I gladly welcome anything you should feel is slightly or very "off." It does me no good to continue in error, so please, lovingly rebuke, correct, and teach me in anything I might have missed, overlooked, or forgotten.

Instead of saying, "I've got all the answers!" wouldn't it be easier if we listened to what others had to say first? After all, I don't learn much from a Bible Study if I'm the only one talking in it. Go figure -- I already knew what I thought in the first place! So teach me what I cannot see on my own, and be open to accepting God's Truth in different forms. Just check to make sure it's still Biblical before changing your theology about it.

It's not about me being right or wrong. These fights are usually not about Truth, but pride in "showing how nuanced I am with my theology" (Which, don't get me wrong, I think is very important!). Remember many of God's examples in the Bible were pushed to understand God in a new way from what they were likely used to (Abraham [go away from your family and the test to sacrifice his son before becoming the father of our faith], Joseph [be sold into slavery before saving your family and ruling Egypt under Pharoah], Moses [raised as a prince, chased into being a stablehand, then leading the meanest group of people through the desert for 40 years], David [defeat Goliath, and let your son build my Temple, plus being dethroned at least once for a time], Job [lose everything before gaining it all back], the Disciples [Jesus wasn't going to rule immediately, but later -- Peter got rebuked for trying to tell Jesus who he thought He was], Paul [from persecution to the evangelist God used to bring Gentiles into the fold]). If these men had said, "Sorry God, that's not how I think You usually move," well... let's just be glad they didn't.

Let's make this life primarily about glorifying God and not just about perfecting our theologies, kowtowing to others so they'll like us, or making things solely about how "we think it should be."

Would it help if I said, "Please?"

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