If when we hear someone say something that doesn’t quite align with what we think is truth or perhaps is somewhat different than the way we were convinced it was, how we react will say much about what is going on within us and what really motivates us.
I have discovered that if all of a sudden we get this overwhelming need to correct the other person and somehow we are overtaken by this anger that they are wrong and it is now our mission to set them straight then may I invite us to consider that even if what the other person says is blatantly wrong the bigger problem is with us and not them…
Consider the way Jesus dealt with the woman by the well who thought she knew better and the way in which he dealt with the Pharisees that thought they knew even better than God himself. The lady by the well received grace, love, and her eyes were opened to the truth that she already was carrying within her. The Pharisees instead missed the very God they claimed to be experts on just because they thought that they knew the scriptures better than anyone else. In fact so convinced they were that Jesus told them that this very drive and need to fix everyone else to their way of thinking drove them half way around the world to take one convert and make them more a son of hell than anything else…
As we move into a deeper space in our spiritual journey with Jesus we begin to realize that truth, unlike the law, cannot be fully understood through a dualistic system of right and wrong. Instead we start to see that truth is like a mountain and that our perspective is determined very much by which side of the mountain we are standing on. No one person can see the whole mountain at the same time. Only God can do this which means that is not about being right or wrong as much as it is about seeing things differently. Ultimately remember that truth is not a thing that we can somehow try and master, like the law, but instead a person we relate with. And this person I am coming to understand little by little will never choose to take part in being used to try and shame others in order to buffer our own religious egos.
Remember what Paul said? Love is always tops!
Therefore make sure that this is what motivates you and not the need to be right and prove everyone else wrong, as this erroneous motivation will only lead you further from the truth that you so desperately seek.
-pablo-
Photo by Edward Regan
