“You don’t have to convert to connect” I read a line yesterday in a book that said, “They are not trying to convert, they are trying to commune.” I absolutely love that! I used to try to “Convert” everyone to my way of thinking, my beliefs, my way, which means people either conformed to my beliefs or walked away. Of course, I thought I was right and everyone else wrong, so why wouldn’t they take what I have? It was all my way or the highway…all in or all out. I felt so righteous, so on a mission from God…and so missing the big picture.
What if my first response, my first desire was to commune with people and find some…anything that was common ground on which we could agree in order to have a conversation, wouldn’t that be better? I love the record of the woman at the well in the gospels. As soon as she knew Jesus was a Jew, the defenses went up, the walls went up and she was ready for a fight. He didn’t bite, he just lovely talked to her and got her to see a bigger vision than where to worship or with whom to worship is irrelevant. He communed with her until they found a common ground and then she could listen. BUT…let’s look at it even further. What is someone doesn’t have ANY common ground that we can talk about? Do I write them off? Consider them not worthy of my love or time? What if I listen to them and they share some insight about God and their view of God that I have never considered? Oh, that has to be impossible right, because I know THE WORD! Well, think again. You know Moses Father-in-law was NOT of the Children of Israel and he gave Moses some wonderful insight on how to govern the people. All I’m saying is we don’t know everything and even if we did does that mean love isn’t our highest priority. Maybe as we commune with love we will convert (whatever the hell that really means) but even if we don’t have we lost anything by loving another human being? Just something to consider…comment if you like, I am here to commune with you.
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