Blog-November 23rd, 2016

The Catch-22 When Others Don’t “Get It”

Ever wonder why others don’t get it?

Luke 12 says: 54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

It seems so simple and it makes perfect sense to you, but that’s because you have insider information, your perspective. Everything is subjective, and reality oftentimes differs from person to person. The only truly objective truth is that which comes from the Bible, and unfortunately, not everyone believes that. Jesus understood that there was objective truth in His Father’s words and the signs that He (Jesus) was showing and revealing to the people. According to the Bible, it couldn’t be argued.

But, it still was. For those who watched Jesus with a disapproving eye, the dots were not connected. Their perspective was different than that of our Lord, trying to move people from a non-salvation worldview to one of embracing the Gospel is a continued work in progress.

Our world has a lot of ambiguity, risk, and uncertainty built into it. For that reason, there are myriad perspectives on how to get to any one goal (apart from what we believe about salvation). So, it will mean that a lot of people don’t get it. They’ll have their own perspectives on how to reach a goal and probably as to what that goal even is.

And that is going to be angering, frustrating, and worthy of scorn to us. But, it doesn’t have to be a reason to walk away from the table or live separated from every one else when they disagree. It is a reminder that consistent dialogue, love, and grace must be a part of our conversations.

Here’s the bigger reality: you don’t always get it. I know you feel that’s flat-out wrong, but because the Lord created us with the ability to see things differently, one person’s path to the objective might just look radically different than yours, so much so that they feel you’re out of touch with reality. It’s plain as day to them, but not so much from your side of the world. Are you wrong? Not necessarily. Are they wrong? Not necessarily. You can agree to disagree and get to the same finish line in different ways.

Jesus gives us clear direction on the path to salvation and other wishes of the Father’s heart. Besides that, there’s a lot of open road to accomplishing a task. So, help people interpret your version of things. Help them correlate the vision that you are trying to cast, the reality that you believe is present. Listen to the other perspective; you just might learn something. Amen.