Seeking to Understand

I expect to encounter 50 different points of view about God on my project this year. Some may land close to my own; some will be very, very different. I’m challenged with how I’m going to relate to those who practice their religious beliefs different than me.

I’ve grown up in a Christian culture that is very quick to highlight differences and very reluctant to find common ground. Our pressing need to be right and to press our opinions and theologies on others can leave us far from the peace that is Jesus. If an outsider evaluated our theology based on how we live they’d probably assume that Jesus installed a dividing wall of hostility instead of destroying it.

Author and Theologian Ed Cyzewski speaks to this issue in his blog post titled, The Call to Love All: What to Do When Someone Dares to Disagree with You.

There is a false sense among some of us that certainty leads to combativeness and conflict. I can, in fact, be completely secure in my faith and beliefs about Jesus and still seek to understand other perspectives in redemptive conversations.

If we truly are secure in our beliefs, we actually have no reason to fight others. What do we personally stand to gain?

It is far more important to begin our interaction with other beliefs by seeking to understand them. How can we critique what we do not understand?

Click here to read Cyzewski’s full article.

And so I’m venturing into my neighborhood a little farther this week, hoping to understand more.

How do you get to understand people who believe different from you?