Just A Little Something

Hey all!

Well, I'm finally back from vacation.  Actually, I've been back for a week or so, but I got sick during vacation and at the same time as returning had to prepare for all manner of presentations and did not have the time or energy to put out a post.  

But I have a few minutes and felt I needed to put something out, even if it is pretty short.

I could talk about vacation and such, which was great, but instead I'm going to make a small but important point based on an interaction I had with a person at a recent thingy I did.

"Thingy" is the technical term for what us preacher types do.

I spent a day doing presentations and Q and A time after we returned from vacation.  I had almost no voice at all, so, it was a long day.

I won't go into all the details of what we talked about and discussed, but I will tell you what a person said to me after we were all done and my voice was finally completely dead and we were all ready to go.

As is often the case after a presentation or a sermon or a talk of any kind, people will come up and say hi and such.  And, normally there is a broad range of response from people depending on who they are what they took from the whole experience.

One thing I had been trying to accomplish was to encourage people to truly think about their lives and what they believe and what they do with both of those things.  Don't just blindly stumble through like a bull in a Star Wars collectable shop, doing more damage than good.

Unless it was a prequels collectable shop, then stomp away.  

I'm looking at you Jar Jar Binks.

One man in particular came up to me and started the conversation like this.

"I know what you were trying to say."  (First thing people say when they are about to politely disagree.  If they aren't worried about being polite, they just start by calling you names.  True story.)  "But one thing that makes the culture of the country I come from better than yours (he actually just said where he was from, but I'm not trying to hate on his people, it isn't the point or the problem) is that we never question anything.  We just accept it all and stay faithful no matter what.  We always do everything we are told and believe."

Now, at this point I was sick, tired, had no voice and in general wanting to lay down right there and pass out.  Two of the organizers saw me after I finished speaking and they said, "Holy cow, you look horrible!  You need to go home and rest."

That's never a good sign.

So, because of this, I just had no ability to have a long discussion and/or argument with the guy.  It probably wouldn't have helped anyway.

So I thanked him for his thoughts and told him it was great to meet him.  Which it was.

But let's think his statement through for a moment.  

Never question anything?  Accept anything told to you just because the source is "official"?  Never go deeper into the source or material or bother to learn why someone interpreted something the way they did?  

What if that person made a mistake?  What if they didn't know what they were talking about?  What if they themselves were complete ignorant or mislead?  What if they were purposefully deceitful?

Never ever ever just accept something simply because someone said so.  Not even if you agree.  Maybe especially if you agree.

That is super dangerous with a side of extra stupid.  This is how damaging and hurtful beliefs and practices are started.  This is how lives are damaged and ruined.

From a Christian standpoint, the bible even tells us to test and measure.  Using the concept of faith to promote ignorance is evil.

And if you are not religious of any kind, well, the same still holds true.  And perhaps you know it to be true more so than the rest of us.  And for that, I'm sorry.

Never be afraid to ask the hard questions and go against old programming.

You might be surprised the good will do you.  And just as importantly, the good it will do for someone else.