A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense. (Proverbs 19:11, NIV)
Simply doing what they do, it seems every other athlete is a lightning rod these days.
Bryson DeChambeau.
Simone Byles.
Megan Rapinoe.
Colin Kaepernick.
The way their words are weighed in the court of public opinion, it’s a wonder many of them say anything at all. And should they do something in a way I wouldn’t do it, look out! So maybe we can at least credit them with being courageous.
We live in the Age of Boisterous Disagreement. If you don’t have an opinion and voice it, you’re out of the mix. You can hardly sit around the clubhouse table if you don’t have something to say. And if you don’t, that’s a problem, too. You’re smug. Or you don’t care. “You must have something to contribute to this conversation, Bob.”
Now, here are a few people who definitely would have something to contribute to the conversation—if they were invited: Bryson DeChambeau. Simone Biles. Megan Rapinoe. Colin Kaepernick. I’m not saying they would change your opinion. I’m saying they would change your conversation. Because we just don’t talk the same when the person of interest is sitting at the table.
We might very well change the way we speak of others in public when we’ve come to know them in private.
I’ve thought of this often, including the morning ahead of writing this, which is what led me to our central Scripture today. I was reading a sermon from one of my favorite Bible teachers and I came to an extended passage where I thought he totally overlooked some key biblical principles in favor of his systematic theology. And in my disagreement, I went back to my point of reference in matters like this: If we were sitting across the table from one another, I’m sure we (or at least I) could come to a better understanding of the differences in our opinion.
When writing to the Romans, Paul said, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18). When we only hang out with friends, it’s almost always possible. Yet what if we brought our enemy to the table, not to convince him, but to hear him?
Maybe my antagonist’s ideologies really do offend my way of thinking, but it is to my glory to overlook that. It is to my credit to find out if he said what he said in the way that he said it because I wasn’t sitting at the table and if his thinking is more robust than I assumed. Imagine that!
We may never come to an agreement, my rivals and I, but we might very well change the way we speak of others in public when we’ve come to know them in private. This isn’t weakness, friends. It is patient wisdom, and it behooves the people of God.
—
Jeff Hopper
August 4, 2021
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.