415. Why Good People Disagree

Dear Father, it is a beautiful sunny and cloudless day.  Two godly men meet to go for a hike in the mountains.  John is certain the sky is green, unaware that he looks through yellow ski goggles.  Dave, on the other hand, is certain the sky is purple, unaware that he looks through red ski goggles.  Though neither man is correct, both are convinced they are right and the other is wrong. Tension increases in their conversation.

Father, every one of us has a distorted perception of life.  We see life through the lens of our personal experience.  A man who grew up in a conservative home is likely to have conservative political views as an adult. A woman whose parents participated in campus protests in the 1960s is likely to have more progressive political views as an adult.  An individual who was victimized by bullying in childhood is likely to take a stand as an adult against any form of bullying they perceive in society.

Father, You are not shaped by experiences. You have not been taught. You have not been influenced. You have not learned. You have never changed Your perspective. You see all things and from every angle. You see things the way they are. It is from Your unique perspective that You inspired the writers of Scripture.  That perspective is impossible for us to have. No matter how godly I am and no matter how much I seek Your wisdom, I will continue to be influenced by my experiences. Father, it is impossible for us to ever have an unbiased and objective perspective on anything. Perhaps if we shed any memory from our past we might be able to be objective. That isn’t going to happen. The ski goggles will not be coming off our faces in our lifetime.

Father, how do we move forward with the knowledge that we are so biased? We trust Your Word as the source of absolute truth. If Your Word tells us the sky is blue, we know that it is blue even though it appears green or purple to us.  Father, teach my friend and I to place our faith in the Word of God. We can enjoy common ground and avoid arguments about the color of the sky. Amen.