Confronting Certain Truths

Certain truths we would rather maybe avoid.

That friend that acts more like you profess to act. Your sibling who you are at odds with but who shares your value system. That co-worker who is clearly more charitable than you (although that is sometimes hard to tell).

But I don’t know, I feel conflicted about this passage.

I mean, I get the heart of it: Uncomfortable truths, like these, should soften your heart.

And at the same time:

A charitable volunteer with a heart of gold who is pushing an ignorant and pernicious economic policy – is still being ignorant and pernicious.

As Jacobs points to, the only way around is with a gentle heart.

Over the years, I’ve had to acknowledge that some of the people whose views on education appall me are more devoted to their students than I am to mine; and that some of the people whose theological positions strike me as immensely damaging to the health of the church are nevertheless more prayerful and charitable, more Christlike, than I will ever be. This is immensely disconcerting, even when it doesn’t mean that those people are right about those matters we disagree on. Being around those people forces me to confront certain truths about myself that I would rather avoid; and that alone is reason to seek every means possible to constrain the energies of animus.

-Alan Jacobs, How To Think