What if our biggest fight today isn’t what we think it is?

I was reminded of a golden truth at my pastor’s peer group recently. It’s something we all need reminding of, especially if we’re committed truth-tellers.

If we’re committed to truth-telling it will be important that we are discerners of truth, for we’ll fail otherwise, because we won’t be acting on the right information.

This was the truth I was reminded of: these people from Issachar, in 1 Chronicles 12:32, “understood the times and knew what Israel should do.”

They understood what was actually happening and that enabled them to advise on the right course of action.

Many people don’t like the word, “should.” They find it’s a demanding word. But do we realise that in grammar there’s an imperative mood, and in life there are imperatives we ought to do—for our and others’ benefit. If we know what we should do, we should do it.

The other thing that this verse shows us is that, despite the fact that we all assume we know the truth, discerning the truth isn’t that simple.

Indeed, the way God works within the passage of life and time is by realities that are most often quite difficult to discern, especially as they pertain to our own lives. Have you ever noticed how easily you might see truth as it relates to others’ lives, yet how difficult it is to see truth as it relates to your own life?

I think one of the truest dangers we all face in this day is the temptation to cynicism. We may herald the glories of being vulnerable, but we don’t appreciate being taken advantage of; less so more than ever in this current age.

But there is a threat to all of us in this in cynical age.

The more cynical we are, the less vulnerable we are, and are less vulnerable we allow others to be.

Standing on the outside looking in, we may be able to see that instead of making places safer, what we actually do is make trust rarer, and this can cause people to be sceptical. Our own scepticism grows and then we’re less able to see the virtues in others. We must ask, is this really what we want for ourselves and others?

The more information we take in that is based in scepticism, the more cynical we become, the less we are given to a default trust, and the more we put our walls up, and the less people are able to access the kind person inside of us who is waiting to bless someone.

I guess I’ve just become a little concerned. I’ve seen it in myself. I see it in our world. It’s the juicy, salacious story that gets the attention—the outrageous one. It’s as if we all need a reason or stimulus to be angry. Stories full of wonder and truth, plain as they are, aren’t sensational and don’t get airtime these days.

In the past days I’ve been to see “A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood” and I wonder if this is what our cynical world needs; more of the kind of facing ourselves that Mister Rogers stood for during over three decades of broadcasting.

Could it be that our biggest opportunity isn’t actually to quash the evil in others so much as to nurture the goodness within ourselves that can be of help to others?

Photo by Paolo Nicolello on Unsplash