Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense. (Proverbs 19:11, ESV)
Let me start off by saying I don’t like it. I don’t like that NFL players are taking a knee during the national anthem. But I also don’t like the President condemning the NFL players and using language unbecoming of the Presidential office.
I may not like it, but I refuse to be offended any of it. There are many who have said they will boycott the NFL. Some fans have gone to the extreme and burned their team gear. There are others who will hurl insults at our president. There is a lot of name calling going on both sides.
But I want to declare that I am not going to be part of it. I am going to refuse to be offended. I refuse to be part of the finger-pointing. I refuse to be part of the name calling. I refuse to be part of the boycotting. I refuse to be part of the protesting. When we are too busy being offended, we are too distracted from listening.
There is great hurt in our nation. The hurt exists on both sides of the aisle. The hurt exists across races. It is not a time to be insulted. It is not a time to be offended. It is a time to listen with all humility. It is a time to seek healing and reconciliation.
I have my opinions. I also have my prejudices that have been informed by my personal experiences. Your experiences are different than my experiences. That causes us to see life in a different light. We need to get past the methods we use to express our perspectives so we don’t miss what may be real pain in people’s lives.
As a pastor, I have had my share of critics. Some of the criticism is off the wall and ill-informed. Other criticism is justified. It can be painful to experience to endure the criticism. So many people are terrible at expressing their discontent. It would be easy to be offended by it. But something I have learned along the way is that the best approach is to seek to find the nugget of truth in each criticism. Even more, seek to find the hurt or the pain point in the critic’s life. Hurting people hurt others. The pain that the critic inflicts through criticism or insult is often a cry for help. They just don’t know the best way to cry out.
Consider that Colin Kaepernick has something to say that you should hear. Consider that President Trump has something to say that you should hear. But we just keep raising the volume with our outrage making it more and more difficult to hear. Where does it all end? I would encourage you this day to do everything to listen to what that person who is offending you has to say. Consider what they are saying and why they are saying it. Just set aside for a bit how they are saying it.
Jean-Ann Cooper says
I love this post. I couldn’t agree more. I don’t like it but I refuse to jump into the fray with those who are whipped into a frenzy and becoming part of the problem themselves. Seek solutions. Seek God.
Dauntless_rev says
This is fantastic, Phil. Thank you for articulating these thoughts!
Roberta Manly says
This is great. I shared this on my Facebook too.