“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” - Stephen Hawking
I don't understand people these days. Why do you find the need to stalk old/current friends, ex/current girlfriend, and the random people with a cool picture as their display picture on Facebook or Twitter? When conflict occurs between people, people, including myself in the past, have snooped around seeking information about the other party because they are too prideful or fearful to approach them directly. There's just so many ways to supplement your approach to satisfy your curiosity or desire in knowing more about someone. Knowing more about someone doesn't mean you know them. Being selective in what you want to know about a person is not knowing a person at all especially if all you want to know are their mistakes.
When people question someone's actions or character, instead of approaching them directly, the common trend is to have a discussion with a third party. What is the point of "finding out more" about someone when it's not even from the direct source? Let's say the direct source leaves out some facts. Is it really necessary to go search for those missing facts? We really gotta ask ourselves, does finding out more facts promote grace, love, peace and unity the way Paul encourages the churches to pursue? Being ignorant is not what I am promoting. If the realities of one's mistakes are evident, does that deter us from seeing the bigger picture? If missing information about someone stops us from living Heaven on earth and stops us from living as a community we are called to live, then we have potentially subjected ourselves to believe that more knowledge equals gospel living.
The common reason to confront someone is to "rebuke" him or her. I believe in the need and necessity of rebuking when a close friend is found misaligned to the truth of the Gospel. But you gotta really ask yourself "are you actually rebuking?" or just listing out your frustrations? Some people are afraid to rebuke. And rightfully so because they probably don't know how to. From the lips of a good friend, "rebuking should be a beautiful thing because God is aligning someone back to Him." If rebuking is beautiful, why do we fear it so much? I think some people got rebuking all wrong. Rebuking isn't laying out your perceptions of a mistake onto someone. Rebuking is initiated by God, centered on Christ, foundation on love, and focused on the gospel of peace. What does that all mean? It's about praying for the individual. It's reminding the individual where they could be. It's about expressing God's love to them. It's about walking alongside them. It's not leaving them in the cold or their misery after you say what 'you want' to say. It's not stating the issues and leaving them to figure things out on their own. Even if mistakes are a reality, it's about seeing the bigger picture - that God loves the person not the mistake. What happened to seeing people the way Christ sees people? The administration of grace is not a subjective activity. We don't select who we want to extend grace to. Grace was given to all. Who are we to selectively choose who deserves grace?
We are a complaining generation that lists out only the bad and never a solution or a way out. I understand "we're all imperfect and that we live in a broken world". But I think we need to step back and ask if we're using the spiritual state of humanity as a copout excuse to avoid approaching a tough situation to love the way Christ would.
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