both

Many of you have valid points. But they do not negate the valid points that others make. Many of you have powerful experiences. But they do not negate the powerful experiences of others. They can both be true. We must stop using our valid experiences to negate the valid experiences of others. We must stop using true facts in an effort to negate other true facts. The truth is big enough to handle all truth. The Truth can handle both.

There is a tension externally with living in the realm of the both. But if both are actually true, and all truth is God’s truth, and if He Himself is the Truth, and He is not conflicted, then there is no actual tension but rather freedom and peace when we can embrace the fullness of what is true.

Just because the sun is shining currently outside my window, does not mean that it is not equally true that it is not shining outside of someone else’s window right now. There is an objective reality that governs whether or not it actually is or not, but we can be in different places that change our present reality. It would do us well to assume that when someone asserts that the sun is shining where they are, that they are not necessarily negating our present reality that it is in fact not shining where we are. It would also do us well to not state that the sun is shining where we are in a manner that negates the reality that it is in fact not shining everywhere.

Many of us in America, especially in the church, have hearts that feel torn in two right now. It’s also interesting that this rending is being reflected in global communities around the world as well.

My dad is retired military and I have Uncles, grandfathers, and extended family who served honorably for freedom. There’s a unique respect for our country that comes when you’ve experienced the sacrifice. We also have friends who have become like family who come from a long line of public servants including police officers, fire fighters, and other first responders. They are black. They also have personal experiences of racism and the fruit of racism that are truly heartbreaking. There is tension in our current cultural context in America. I’ve also had the honor of traveling around the world and seeing the fruit of different political ideologies. And some of the places that I love most are ravaged at the moment by the schemes of men who’s power was not kept within check.

And yet, even in the hardest places, even in the darkest places, the people of God still wake up each morning and put their proverbial pants on one leg at a time, and do what the Lord calls them to do that day. God’s Kingdom is on the move even in the darkest places. And in fact, sometimes it is because it gets so dark that the Kingdom grows exponentially. The gates of hell will not prevail against God’s church. The church is on the move because our one true King is on the move. May His kingdom come and be reflected here on earth as it is in heaven because of us, His church. 

Jesus Himself said that if we have love and unity for one another that the world will know that we are His disciples and that Jesus was the Son of God. When Christ returns, will He find faith on the earth? Or will He find fear.

We have been called to be ministers of reconciliation, to be peacemakers. For those of us in Christ, we have His mind and He came to be gentle and lowly not to ridicule and demean. Yes, truth is a dividing line, but we should not be the ones to drive another from the truth by our tone or lack of understanding or our oversimplification of complex realities. And if we are happy about angering someone or driving them away, that surely does not align with God’s heart who looked on the multitudes and saw that they were lost without a shepherd and had compassion on them.

And when we charge someone to do their research or have discernment or to pray about something, we are best to not say that with the tone and implication or even directly stating that it’s so they can come to our same conclusion. We must remain humble and not attempt to establish ourselves as the final authority. God is the One who convicts, not us. The Holy Spirit is in charge of each person’s heart and mind, not us. We can encourage and exhort, but it should always be with the purpose of building up, not tearing down. And helping others to fix their eyes on Jesus, who alone is the author and perfecter of their faith… not us or any other person or system. Jesus is their Jesus, not us. Jesus is their Savior, not us and not a political party and not a country. Jesus powerfully uses governments to accomplish His purposes, but His sovereign rule and the ministry of the church going forth does not hinge on an election. He is all-sufficient. The church, the bride of Christ, will continue. She will minister. She will grow.

Simultaneously, there are places where the sun is shining down on the earth right now and where it is not. And both happen for a variety of reasons, not just two simple reasons. And a lot of the times, even when we perceive it as shining or not shining, it’s really objectively somewhere between. Think of a cloudy day when you just cannot stop squinting. Sometimes the light is brighter than you think it is. But sometimes it’s darker than you think it is. And sometimes it’s both.

Both doesn’t have to negate either “side”. Both doesn’t have to dismiss objective truth.