I was an adult before I realized what the story of the three bears was all about. I mistakenly thought it was about a little blond girl that got lost in the woods. It’s about compromise. It’s a good thing I didn’t understand this when I was a child because I went to church with people that thought “compromise” was a dirty word. They taught me that once one takes a position one should dig in and recognize that any argument that refutes one’s position is a crafty ploy from Satan. Logic should be spurned in lieu of faith, faith being a code word for stubbornness.
Then one day I read Luke 10. “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “?‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” This is followed by the story of the Good Samaritan. And how do I love God? Jesus said, “If you did it unto the least of them you did it unto me.”
It isn’t about my side and your side. It’s about our side. It’s about making life work because we are able to love enough to understand the other’s point of view. I am not talking about surrendering principles, because there really is only one eternal principle. Everything else is too hard or too soft, too cold or too hot. Love finds the “just right” position. When I was a pastor I loved my conservatives and my liberals because when they talked we got good things done.
Written by Roger Bothwell on March 21, 2014
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org