October 27, 2010
Taking a Stand
One man who has lived in several areas of the West said he was surprised at how his political views changed somewhat depending on the political landscape. For instance outspoken Democratic rhetoric has a tendency to be diluted if you move to a community where the majority of the population is Republican. The man observed, “Where you stand depends on where you sit.” Applying this thought process to believers gives us another good object lesson on the importance of sitting at the feet of Jesus.
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2 comments:
Gail;
-----Life is complex. That is one of my favorite observations. How rude and disrespectful of other’s viewpoints do we want to be? Maintaining an amount of silence is a social decorum useful for maintaining a ground of unity upon which cooperation can stand. And sometimes it is more important that cooperation stands than it is that I stand. Yet simply because any particular viewpoint exists and is held more or less widely does not mean it is completely, or even partially, valid. Worse yet, it does not mean it is innocuous. Invalid viewpoints can be more than ineffective, they can be totally counterproductive. Early twentieth century Western culture became crazed by the idea that mankind could eventually evolve into perfection - a nice sounding hope indeed. But the product of this notion was the advocacy of forced sterilization programs in the U.S., moms and dads of Germany marching their disabled children off to gas chambers, and the dehumanizing horrors of fascism, socialism, and communism in general. Sound is the advise of the old gambler on the train, “Every gambler knows that the secret to survivin’ is knowin’ what to throw away and knowin’ what to keep.”
-----Nobody is entirely correct in their viewpoints. Nobody is entirely wrong. The fact is, viewpoints are just what the basics of this word implies. Everything knowable can not possibly be known by any one person. Without a doubt, so little of that realm can be known that all a person can do is to hold in view a few known points of reference for testing the rest of the ideas he encounters. Being certain of those reference points then becomes paramount to personal stability. And being certain of their validity becomes vital to survival. It is one thing to hold your peace when living amongst the enemy, but it is quite another to become swayed by the enemy while holding your peace. And more perplexing than that, the enemy - being less the people who disagree with you and more the ideas which are counter to the truth about life - bivouacs even in yourself. Nobody is entirely correct.
-----“So you’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, know when to run.” Some viewpoints trash life, some make it. But all of them alike are dealt from one deck of cards, this mortal life. And since we all play at the same table, it is somewhat important to be able to read people’s faces, knowing what their cards are by the way they hold their eyes. What they hold can effect you if you take your mind off the cards in your hand, for they are the cards which will certainly make you or break you.
-----Yet it is paramount to be able to read the Dealer’s face, knowing what is in the deck by the way He holds His eyes. For if you play the game by His rules, He will deal from the deck in your favor. And that ain’t cheatin’ because His rules are to take the gamble out of the game. If you’re going to play this game, you gotta learn to play it right. You read the Dealer’s face by the way He deals the cards; you play your hand by the viewpoint in His eyes. Then you will never run out of aces, for He is entirely correct, though we all are somewhat wrong.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
I love the phrase "where you stand depends on where you sit," as it applies to Christians. It made me think about the results of not sitting at the feet of Jesus - I think I would become like the double-minded man, unstable in all my ways, unable to stand on anything.
Arlene
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