What's More Important?

I've been there . . . recently. I have inhabited the land of "I'm right and you're wrong." In fact, I think I was temporarily named queen there. I sat on my royal throne and looked down from on high at the minions beneath me knowing that I held the correct answer. I was right. Until I discovered I was wrong.

It's not wrong to be right. In fact, it can be a very good thing as long as we're willing to be wrong. Are you confused yet, dear reader?

At times, in this walk - this journey we call Christianity - I have been so sure that I was right that I didn't even stop to consider that I could be wrong. I held so tightly to my justified anger or my sense of superiority that I was unable to hear the voice of the Lord whispering how wrong I was. Oh, at times I was even correct, but I wasn't right.

You see, it's really not all about wrong and right. It is really all about relationship. The destination is nice, but it's more about the journey. Our life with our Father is not so much about getting it all right, but more about loving Him enough to hear through all the noise.

I know, I know, it sounds like I'm rambling, and I am. You are completely welcome to close your browser or flip to someone else's blog to get a more coherent message because right now, all of this is tumbling from my fingertips faster than I can breathe.

I suppose that a better way to state it is that you can be correct and still be wrong. I have had more than one disagreement with friends or family where I knew that I was right. And I prayed, "Lord, show them how wrong they are." Sometimes He answered that prayer, but more often than not, He showed me how wrong I was.

The better approach, and one that I've learned the hard way is to pray, "Lord, I think I have the answer, but show me Your way." I believe that our heart should be to hear and not always to speak. Sometimes I need to slap a filter on this thing called a mouth and not just think before I speak but listen before I speak. Listen to hear His heart, His way, His plan.

Here is the sticking point for most of us. When we pray these prayers, most of the time, we want Him to say, "You're right. Well done, son or daughter, thank you for your righteous, holy, perfect perception." And in our fantasy that other person will bow his knee before us descrying his mistakes and begging for our magnanimity. PUHLEESE!!

I'm serious, people. I've been in situations where I was completely in the right. I have dealt with people who have treated me so wrongly that I was broken before my Father. And do you know what He said? "Forgive." One word - that's what I got. And do you know what? I needed that one word.

The Bible says in Isaiah 64:6 "We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags." Do you know what that phrase "filthy rags" means? I looked it up. It is referring to rags soiled as by a woman having her monthly cycle. Yeah, seriously, it does. Go ahead, check your Strong's Concordance. I'll wait.

That is what our righteousness looks like. Is that really what you want to hold onto? Is that what you want to carry around with you all day long? A bunch of nasty, stinky rags. I don't mean to be graphic, but think about what that would be like after a while. I wouldn't want to spend much time with someone carrying around that odiferous baggage.

So, it's time to decide this: What's more important - being correct or being right? What is more valuable - your "rights" or your relationship?

Paul puts it this way in Philippians 3:8-9. "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith."

When all else fails, be willing to change. Yes, I did just say that. Be available to be wrong, so He can take you beyond the point of righteous indignation to righteousness. His righteousness.

Oh, and I reserve the right to be wrong . . . often.

Blessings!