This year one improvement I hope to make is to focus more on trying to avoid arguments. Most people will not change their mind even if you overwhelm them with truth and evidence that there argument is without merit, (or in some cases even based upon an untruth). In effect we never win by winning an argument.
So I ask who wants to be a loser.
Not many; we all want to be winners.
I recently got into an argument with a far left wing person who is convinced that her socialistic view of our society is written on stone tablets somewhere. She believes she is right about everything and we must ALL live by her self-proclaimed axioms of societal conduct. We went round and round like a merry go round and with each ensuing conversation our positions became more firmly entrenched. It was quite the waste of time and there was no meaningful dialogue. In fact if anything we are both even more firmly entrenched in our respective differing ideologies than before.
She did however say one thing that I considered to be useful and poignant. It occurred while she was ridiculing me for among many other things being a Christian with phrases something to the effect of me being the “quintessential Christian, rude, judgmental, unloving, ignorant, helpless, phony, Bible thumping, materialistic, bitter, unintelligent hypocrite, scared of honest debate, with conversation clearly not being my strong point”.
Ahem . . . Something tells me that she is not a fan and I should not expect a Christmas card.
Obviously she doesn’t think much of me or other Christians, but she did offer a nugget of truth that I felt led to share with you today. I found it hard to believe that it came out of her mouth and feel that it had to come directly from God, but there I go again being judgmental. She said: “Instead of thinking of Jesus as some outside source of unconditional love, and all you have to do is say you love Him and ask His forgiveness and you’ll magically end up in heaven . . . you may want to try being like Him. He said He is within us, so try acting like you’ve got Him in you, instead of like a petulant child. It’s a cop-out, Bob, to tell people Jesus loves them, and then not even try to be like Him”.
Mahatma Gandhi once said: “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
Ouch!
I don’t know how to have further meaningful dialogue with this lady. Unless one agrees with her position, she launches into her vile attack mode.
What would Jesus do?
Hmmm . . . He prayed, witnessed, discipled, and helped people and most of all He loved “unconditionally”. My liberal friend’s advice is sound. No use trying to convince her with dialogue, just love her . . .
1 Cor. 13:4
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
December 22, 2014 – Click here to listen