Opinions

While out to dinner not too long ago, I noticed how the people at the table asked to have their food cooked. Some like their steak well done, almost like a hockey puck. Others prefer to cook just long enough to make sure it’s no longer alive. Then there are those who like to have theirs cooked with just enough pink remaining that the juices fill your mouth when you eat it. We don’t get upset when someone wants a medium rare steak. We could care less if someone wants theirs dry and tough. 

No this post isn’t about steak but it is about preference and choice and opinion. We can be patient with someone when they like their food cooked differently than us. We don’t have to like our food cooked that way, but we’re not going to go out and tell people how horrible they are for wanting a well-done steak! So why do we feel the need to do this with other opinions?

Our political climate is red hot lately. We all have an opinion about nearly everything! But there is a major issue with opinions in the political sphere these days. We claim the other side needs to be more tolerant and accepting of differing views, but we get all up in arms when someone has a different take on something that we do. I think about the debates circulating around major issues in society like gender matters and gun control. I’m not going to get into massive debates here about what is right and what is wrong. The point is the way we handle disagreements.

We don’t go verbally abusing people who want their steak cooked a different way, so why do we do it about other issues? Some people are adamant that stronger gun laws will prevent mass shootings. But others believe that since we don’t enforce the laws we have now that a new law isn’t really going to make a difference. My opinion doesn’t have to be your opinion but we need to be willing to look at an idea from multiple perspectives.

I’m not talking tolerance or acceptance but simple kindness and common sense. We’ve become a society devoid of common sense and vastly lacking in kindness. Disagreements aren’t the end of the world. Actually they help us refine our thinking. Just because someone does something stupid toward you doesn’t mean they’re out to get you.

I recently had conversations with someone who disagreed with me. And honesty they completely have the right to do that. But the problem lies in the fact that the fact that we didn’t see things the same way was taken as an offense. It’s like saying that you have the right to your opinion but I don’t have the right to mine. Sounds a little hypocritical to me, what about you?

This is the great thing about grace. It puts everyone on the same playing field. The bible tells us that none of us gets it right. There aren’t degrees of right and wrong. There are no shades of grey. You’re either perfect (which none of us are) or your imperfect (which all of us are). Grace is the leveler. The law reminds us that we aren’t good enough on our own no matter how good we are. It says that our opinions aren’t what save us. Our actions won’t get us to heaven. Our best will never be enough. But grace says that’s not the point. It says that we can be different and flawed and broken and not see eye to eye and yet Jesus still died for us. Grace is God’s gift to us whether we agree with it or not. You can reject it. But just because you don’t agree with God doesn’t change what He has offered you.

So today have a healthy disagreement but remain friends. Be kind. Go out of your way to serve someone. Let them like their steak rare. But just because they disagree, they’re not your enemy. Talk it out and in the end offer grace.

I like my steak medium. What about you?