The only thing worth talking about

I read the words and the noise is deafening — thoughts on life and faith and what it is to believe right and live right. In a effort to understand, I read voices with whom I do not agree. I invite a world of dissent into my mind. And I wonder, how do we listen hard enough to hear our dissenting brothers and sisters but also know our own thoughts?

Photo Credit: KOMUnews

Because the tribalism that is happening is not always a good thing.

The marketing guru of our day says we ought to find our tribe — the small group of people who already think like us and want to hear what we have to say.

But is this good for us in the long term? Because if everyone in my tribe agrees with me, where is the iron sharpening iron that makes us stronger? And when two tribes disagree, it becomes a cacophony of tribe against tribe — each side chumming for a few more readers. They listen to like voices that say, “Keep it up, you’re exactly right.” When we only ‘listen to respond’ instead of ‘listening to understand’ the noise just keeps getting louder and louder.

I know I’m not exactly right. I know I need the voice of others who think differently. I need dissent. But I don’t need a dissenting tribe with a vocal leader who spews and sprays just to hear the cheers of people who already agree with them. And this is the point to which conversations about faith have devolved.

But words burn like a fire and I write them down and try to consider. I don’t want to merely make an argument that will add subscribers and followers and comments. I have opinions. I can craft an argument. But who needs another opinion?

I want to share what it is to know and believe and struggle and follow and worship and live a full life. But we’ve reached a point where I can quote Romans 1 verbatim and professing Christians will still argue.

So I’m trying to figure out what it’s like to hang out in the basement and still talk about the only thing worth saying. All I know right now is that, in spite of all of the ugliness, God is good and He is worth talking about.

If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
(Jeremiah 20:9 ESV)