One of the most significant decisions we make every day is when and why we’ll travel at the speed of life and when and why we’ll slow down to the speed of love. It’s a choice.
I’ll admit it doesn’t always feel like a choice, but it is, and it’s often a tough choice.
The good news is that every day we are presented with a fresh opportunity to make good choices and live them out well.
How are you doing as you navigate the speed of life and the speed of love?
2. The Declining Ability To Exchange Differing Ideas, Thoughts and Opinions
The art of conversation is often lost to the heat of debate. Not the spirited sense of debate classically taught in school, but the debate that demands one must win and one must lose — one is right, therefore the other is wrong.
Our growth as leaders, husbands and wives, friends and colleagues, and, purely human beings is found in the ability to exchange differing ideas and opinions with respect and a mindful intent to understand and grow.
The danger of defending our own echo chambers based on emotion over thought and data is real. We don’t need to abandon our core beliefs and values to have a conversation that leads to growth and understanding.
This is not a platform for wishy-washy compromise, it’s a desperate need to find a better way to connect and communicate with others who have ideas and opinions that differ from our own.
When we can exchange differing ideas and opinions with respect and intent to understand; strained relationships can be restored, new relationships can be formed, and the gospel has greater potential to gain more ground.
3. The Challenge To Value Social Messaging in Its Proper Perspective
I’m enthusiastic about the potential good in social media, but I’m also aware of its pitfalls.
Social media allows us to stay connected on the run, celebrate successes and milestones, share ideas and helpful content, pray for each other, share common values, and even inspire one another.
Social media can also be shallow, divisive, suck us into purposeless scrolling, propagate lies, incite anger, and create a false sense of importance and acceptance.
One of the significant pitfalls of social media, among all its potential good, is being lured into a false sense of meaningful relationship. How do you assess what is meaningful and real and what is not?
It takes wisdom, discipline and good common sense to navigate social media for healthy and productive outcomes.
Simple tips to navigate social media well.
- Know your purpose. Connect with friends? Entertainment? Practical content? Etc. In other words, use social media purposefully, rather than reflexive habit.
- Watch your values. Establish personal boundaries so you don’t find yourself wandering in unhealthy territory.
- Avoid jumping tracks. Example, you start off in search of content, or to connect with friends, but end up scrolling entertainment.
- Limit your time. Establish how much time you will invest in social media.
4. The Complexity of Managing the Tension Between Grace and Truth
Most of us lean toward either grace or truth in our basic personality and wiring, and under pressure that bias becomes magnified. Knowing which way we lean helps us avoid the extremes, and stay closer to a place of balance.
