Monday, August 26, 2013

Conviction and vision

I shared the conviction of one of my close friends to another good friend of mine. It still puzzles me how people under the same God, same church, same ministry, can reject each others conviction as though it is false preaching. Being a 3rd party to the whole issue, I don't wholly agree with the conviction or drive for change in that area. But I can see where the desire and passion of it arise from.
I was having one of those small talks with my friend and it went to politics of course. We started talking about issues that were brought to knowledge by the general public in many places regarding the Malaysian general election. There is this huge issue of unfairness, and of course.. everyone heard of the blackouts that took place. Apparently a whole lot of it was just puffed up conspiracy theories to conspire against the government. But at the same time, the 2 of us came to acknowledge that there has to be a certain element of truth to the news that was provided because people just don't cook up stories out of no-where to spread. There has to be a certain amount of truth to it no matter how small the truth is, so we both concluded that in some rural areas where communication is a lot worse than it usually is, it might have happened.
The point is, where there is an area that requires change that someone else is convicted about while we are not and probably not in agreement with as well, we will automatically shunt him off and label him as misguided. And when that happens, a whole new area of vision and progress just gets destroyed like that.
Some of the things that I noticed people experiences or struggle with that causes misunderstandings of such.

1) bad communication skills
be it that the person is bad with his language or just bad at expressing themselves, this would be one of the largest reasons why people misunderstood each other. I personally experienced a lot of it. And it can arise from a lot of reasons. Bad language command, fear, especially when wanting to impress another. Somehow ideas just won't flow from a person to another simply because the person explaining the idea is really bad at it.

2.) reputation
The circumstance of my local government represents the best example to this. Over the years, corruption has painted a strongly demented image of the government resulting in the people interpreting all the actions of the government as bad. As a result of that, all the actions of the government is now interpreted by everyone as having a corrupted vision, or not vision at all. let alone a conviction.
3.) Pride and ego
Some people just have their heads so puffed up that they now fail to see the works and ministry of others around them no matter how clearly explained.

Alright. So how does one overcome all these to bring a vision across to another person? After all, if people are really that impossible to work with, that leadership would be a sector people would not bother to venture into because it has little returns.
Patience. The maturing person will sooner or later come to a stage of maturity that would enable them to see the big picture which they currently can't see with their level of maturity. Painful it is to practice the enduring patience of waiting for that maturity or even teaching them to be that mature. I found it a delightfully rewarding to bring someone up to a greater level of Godly maturity, but that apparently I realised, is a calling that not everyone is meant to be following .
Love. what truely is the hardest is loving someone more than you love yourself. This however is not a chose-able thing to do, but a requirement for all who are Christians. But at the same time, having been empowered by God, should not be something that is thought of as impossible to practice.
Slowing down. Slow down to hear. Speak less. My dad who is someone regarded by everyone he works with and the church as well, as a person who no one should have a problem with. My church leaders and his co-workers use him as a benchmark to identify people who are difficult to work with. How do they do that? Anyone who cannot work with my dad is a person with bad character. I approached by dad and ask him how to speak to people and understand people better. His answer to me has always been the same till today. Listen to what other people are saying. Don't always want to talk about yourself. It has been an advice that I found hard to follow, but greatly beneficial in following

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