These have been some challenging days for Americans. Maybe even more challenging for you, if you’re from elsewhere. I want to think rightly about the violence in El Paso and Dayton, about the troubling situations in Hong Kong and Kashmir. About threats and woe and fear.
I want to be happy and at peace, but how can I if the bell does indeed toll for us all?
Into this sense of disquiet, my friend Brian’s words dropped recently:
I find that there is a true hunger, a deep longing among many people to relate to others quite different than ourselves. It begins with two vital attitudes:
1. An inquisitive learning posture that says, “I don’t know you, but I want to. I’m here to listen, to ask questions, to find out what makes you tick.”
2. A willingness to take a risk, to be vulnerable, to have an attitude of humility. (Tweet these.)
I want those “two vital attitudes” in me. I want to find others who want them and encourage and equip them in their efforts.
There’s not much I can do to help protesters in Hong Kong, Christians and Muslims on edge in India, nor grieving families in Texas and Ohio. But I can cultivate those attitudes. I can be a little vulnerable and ask someone different from me what they think, how they’re doing.
This won’t usher in an age of utopia, but it’s what I can do, we can do. And God being who God is, the ripple effect of even a small effort is honestly incalculable. You in?
Thanks for reading this far. If you have a few seconds more, I’d like to ask you a favor. Yesterday, an insightful and influential website, The Denison Forum, published an article I wrote. It would be great if you could give it a little boost simply by clicking through to it. If you comment, I’d be over the moon! The Denison Forum might be a good way to get some of what we all think out to a wider world.