Children begin to sort out fantasy from reality when they discover that Santa is Daddy (or Mommy). In our adolescent years, we become more self assured and confident that we sometimes come across as being self-righteous. But then in our young adult years especially when we have the opportunity to attend college, we get the chance to see the world more realistically. We discover that it’s never as it seems to be. It’s never as we say, “black or white” but rather there’s a lot of gray.
In our political life in America today, there is so much “we and they” and never “us.” We are blue or red, liberal or conservative, Democrats or Republicans but rarely ever do politicians say we are “US legislators.” We say there are 2 sides of a coin but it is still one coin just like we are still one country.
The polarization in our country has essentially paralyzed everything: governing, media reporting, family dinner sharing, meeting discussions and even church gatherings. When we learned that there are usually at least two points of view and sometimes more, then why is it so difficult for us to try to see as many perspectives as possible? I know that I have only one life to live and the life that I have lived has shaped me to become the person whom I am today. I see the world from the vantage point of a second generation Asian American born in Boston who now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. Too often I am only able to see the world from my own particular viewpoint and I confess is frequently incomplete. I need the other perspectives to see fully.
In 1 Corinthians 13:12, we read, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
If we are serious in making a difference in this world, we need to improve on what is, such as the Affordable Health Care Act rather than repeal it. We need to continue what our predecessor started and build on it. We need to see that what we do is only a little part in a long journey of contributing to this life. We are in danger of throwing the baby out with the bath water when we think that there’s only one way of understanding a situation. If our president is going to earn our respect and become an effective leader, he will need to learn that there are always more that two sides to any matter. He needs to see that other people’s perspectives may contain real facts and not “alternative facts” that he needs to know. There is truth to be told.
If you are Christian then we believe that Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Now, that is really truth to be told!