One Strike, You're Out

You're at church, and you see one of your friends. You sit down with them and they start talking about some of their beliefs. All goes well until they mention that thing. You know, that One Thing that you are absolutely opposed to. All of a sudden, your opinion of them just dropped to zero. Discounting everything you ever did together, and all the things you have in common, this one thing now makes you turn your head and say, "I don't like what he said. I don't agree with that."

So now every time you see them, though you may be civil to their face, you have that thought in the back of your mind that "I don't like him because he believes in this" or "I don't like him because he supports this" or "I don't like him because he's friends with that other person." Every time their name is mentioned or they are somehow referenced, you have a near-religious check of "I don't like him."

Since when has that been a way to live your life? You are never going to agree with everyone on everything! Never. Never. NEVER. So someone believes something different than you - deal with it!

I can't stand how people form one-off opinions of those around them. You like them, or you don't like them. You may even be torn trying to decide which to do. Can you see what's wrong here?

I have a friend who is a great guy and loves God with everything he is. Many of the things I learned about God came from him. But sometimes he makes jokes about fighting you when in reality he is just messing around. The constant "You wanna fight me?" bothers me sometimes. But does that mean that I drop everything we've ever done together, all the things he's taught me, and everything else simply because he jokes about fighting?

That is one of the most short-sighted ways to live that I know of. One of your friends didn't thank you for something you did for them. You think your youth pastor's awesome, while someone else thinks he's not all that great. A friend says that one of your other friends is a bad person because they said the wrong thing once.

EVERYONE HAS THEIR FLAWS! Everyone makes mistakes! Everyone has their own beliefs, and while they may be similar to your own, they probably do not match exactly. How about we drop the "One strike, you're out" policy and learn to love people for who they are, instead of having that snide voice in your head saying "I don't like him because he does things differently than I do" all the time?

Let's do it.