It’s critically important to value and defend truth. We should seek justice. Knowledge is critical in the struggle for both. Sadly, our nation is divided into different universes of truth, justice, and knowledge. It’s essential that we objectively seek out each of these treasures, but sometimes in the process, voices are raised, unkind words are spoken, and relationships broken. Which is worse? Losing truth, justice, knowledge… or losing relationships?
Is it possible to love someone, if in one area that you believe to be essential, you don’t respect their view? I think so, but it means that we can neither jettison our values/intelligence, or our civility. It’s all too easy to walk away. Some walk away from civility, and allow passion to overtake us. Others walk away from concern, and feel like there is nothing they can do. Others walk away from struggling to find the truth. Some walk away from relationships. I don’t think that I’ve ever been guilty of the latter, but I have, at times, allowed just passion to become anger, to become an unkind or ill-spoken word.
In scripture, Paul tells us of the importance of faith, hope, and love. Like truth, and justice, faith and hope are essentially important, but when set next to love, they defer to the supremacy of love. Making love preeminent doesn’t diminish faith, or hope. True, abiding love only serves to empower faith and hope.
In our struggle for our universes, in our divided world, let’s do our best to give the wheel to love and let it drive us forward. For myself, I daily question my use of words, and want to do better, but not at the expense of obeying what I believe to be true or to abandon my calling. As always, I look forward to different views, that are supported by fact, logic, and reason. If we fail to find common ground on that issue, let’s look for other ways in which we are like minded.