This year is not what I expected it to be. Oh, I knew it would be busy, but little did I expect it would be crazy-busy. Hopes for any sort of balance, graced with purposeful contemplation and writing, went out the window pretty quickly. As they say, life comes at you fast, and the demands of the moment easily elevate the "have-to's" ahead of the "want-to's". As one who believes that a little solitude and reflection is essential to one's mental and spiritual well-being, it seems there has been precious little of that in the past 12 months, so please pardon me if this first paragraph is a bit self-indulgent. Introductions are not always easy to write.
Charles M. Schulz (of Peanuts fame) once wrote: "It's hard to convince people when you're just staring out the window that you're doing your hardest work of the day." I entered 2020 with high hopes to start developing the framework of a book, but the space for necessary contemplation never seemed to materialize. Sure, there have been brief, stolen moments, followed by flashes of inspiration which I capture any way I can, often by using my phone to take a quick picture of an interesting paragraph in a book I'm reading, followed by typing up a bubble of thought as a draft email to myself. The intent of course, is to further develop these thoughts into what Washington Irving might call a "sketch". But then the current of events rips me away, and I never get back to "staring out the window" or developing the thoughts that come.
It's not like there hasn't been source material this year. We've had a runaway virus, lockdowns, social, racial, and political strife, and an accelerating disintegration of confidence in our institutions. The spirit of division runs rampant, and the weapon of choice is the broad brush. I have chosen to avoid writing on such specific topics, not because I lack for opinion, but because I have learned over the years that our ability to see and hear others clearly is often diminished in the white hot passions of the moment.
In all my writing and teaching over the years, my one interest was to create the conditions by which the hearer or reader would think, examine, and perhaps discover for themselves a new understanding. My objective is not to persuade anyone to my point of view, but rather to reveal that there are other points of view. It is up to the other to consider and determine for themselves what they think, what they believe. It is the story of my own faith journey - I don't need to persuade anyone that the Gospel is true, I just need to share it and model it, and let the Holy Spirit handle the revelation.
For me, the "standoff" approach described above is becoming all the more critical as the tribal mentality rages. I have come to believe that "presupposition" is the bane of human interaction in the digital age. It goes beyond just having a worldview - it is me, bringing to bear that perspective, with all its assumptions and biases, to my interactions with others. Likewise, it is others, doing the same in their interactions with me. But too often, rather than dialogue and engagement, we get a battle in which, as stated above, the weapon of choice is the broad brush.
I don't mind disagreements, I really don't, because I know I have my own presuppositions that deserve to be challenged. What I do mind is the damage we permit to our relationships and to our witness. In a year when in truth we have needed one another more than ever, it seems we have chosen to not merely accept division, but to encourage it. I'm not suggesting we should pursue a false unity - far from it. But I do think a greater measure of grace and humility is warranted, such that we don't allow a difference of opinion to be elevated to the epochal event we so often make it to be.
2020 has been a difficult year, and as I write this day, I anticipate 2021 to reflect a continuation of that trend - more difficult days are ahead, this we know. But I remain hopeful that we can and will persevere, understanding that perseverance is more than survival - it is a labor of love, sacrifice, and prayer. Show us the way, oh Lord, we pray. Amen.
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