Agree and disagree

Poet and theologian, Pádraig Ó Tuama says 

Agreement has rarely been the mandate for people who love each other.
 Maybe on some things, but, actually, when you look at some people who 
are lovers and friends, you go, actually, they might disagree really deeply 
on things

We have heard it said “agree to disagree”.  I say agree and disagree.  Of course, we harmoniously agree in peace and love.   Disagree enthusiastically.  Disagree with vigor.  Disagree in peace and love for it is in the rigorous rubbing against our currently held thoughts and beliefs that beautiful new ideas have an opportunity to emerge.

Just as the sand in the oyster, over time, forms the lustrous and treasured pearl.

When we refuse to entertain the perspectives and opinions of other, we risk becoming thoughtless in our own beliefs and rigid in our thinking. When we courageously challenge our own opinions and beliefs, we create a lush environment for them to grow, shift, change and even expand to greater understanding. This calls us to refrain and restrain ourselves from moving from discernment in to being judgmental.  

By being fiercely brave and sitting with our thoughts and beliefs we can allow them to be challenged to the core.  Examining what we hold most dear as our belief system with microscopic precision and exploring them with the beginner’s mind may move us to treasure them even more than we had in the past.  By being willing to doubt the validity of everything we have cherished as a belief until this moment invites us to be fluid in our thinking as new information come to our awareness. There is nothing to fear.  There is everything to gain.  Truth doesn’t change even under the closest scrutiny.

If we move through our lives with intractable certainty, we become “stubborn and stiff-necked people” (Exodus 32:9). The world around us is changing moment by moment.  Remember the words of Unity co-founder Charles Fillmore, “I reserve the right to change my mind”

Let us never be so certain in our beliefs that we are constricted and unwilling to change.  If we remain unopen to new information as it is revealed.  It is in the probing of what we believe to be true that Divine Truth emerges as unchangeable and withstanding the test of time.  

Sunday we will tap the into the idea of “life is but a dream”.  The meaning of every experience we have in life is our perception of that experience.  Have you noticed that sometime two people engaged in the same conversation walk away with totally different thoughts and responses to the conversations? Each person holds their own perspective and if there is a silent observer, they may have yet a differing opinion.   

Many blessings,

Rev. Karen