Being
Right
“I'm
sure I'm wrong about many things, although I'm not sure exactly which
things I'm wrong about. I'm even sure I'm wrong about what I think
I'm right about in at least some cases.”
Brian
McLaren (A Generous Orthodoxy)
Do you ever find yourself
spouting off about things you absolutely know you're right about,
only to find out later that you were dead wrong? I do. I speak with
certainty about things I believe I know for sure, and later ask
myself, was that correct? Sometimes, even if one knows the facts of a
situation or subject, those facts can change over time, can be
disproved or added to. I Google a lot, but sometimes even Google is
wrong.
We have an epidemic of
“gotta-be-right” in this country. Perhaps not just here, because
all around the world, people are saying, “I'm right, you're wrong!”
and marching around with signs stating their position on whatever
they believe themselves to be right about. We like certainty.
Ambiguity feels a little squishy underfoot; you really don't know
where you stand. The ground could drop out from under you at any
moment. Certainty feels more solid and reliable.
The problem with
certainty is that it's a box. If you stake your claim, and plant a
flag beside it, it's harder to accept that you might be mistaken. A
box has walls all around it, so you're shut in, and anyone with a
different idea, or perhaps, a different set of facts, is kept outside. It's
hard to see daylight inside a box. Certainty is the enemy of
inspiration, innovation and creativity. It's also the enemy of
openness to Spirit's movement.
Certainty is creating
walls around us as a world, too. We all think we're right and anyone
who disagrees with us is wrong. We've cemented ourselves into this
position so that we can't move in any direction. We need to take a
sledgehammer to our hard selves so we can move toward one another
again.
Almost nothing in life is
certain—as in the old cliché, death and taxes are about all we can
depend on. We live in a dynamic world, and as busy little humans, we
are constantly adding to and changing our base of knowledge,
including our spiritual domain. If we think we are certain of what
God is and isn't, if we think we can speak for God—well, bless our
hearts. We need to pray for each other. One way of stepping away from
hard certainty is to accept that diversity is the norm—diversity of
people, of beliefs, of ways and forms of life, and of faith. There is
no one right way. For you, there may be one right way, for me there
may be another, and we're both...well...right. My right does not
cancel out yours, and your right doesn't cancel out mine. If we carry
that understanding in our hearts, we can live together in peace.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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