To be bitter is to empower those who wronged you and, further, to wrong yourself.
We are told we need to reach the world, to be soul winners for God. Where is our witness? How can we win them if we don’t love them- if we only look for differences rather than commonalities? Especially if we’re mistaken about what they believe and won’t listen when they try to tell us, how can we say we love them?
What is so frightening about discovering our similarities? What’s so threatening about reaching out to them, where they are? Why is it easier to tell someone they are wrong than to discover something they are right about? Even in Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill, he found a way, not to say their idols were wrong, but to say there was more for them. He wasn’t afraid to go to their idolatrous place of worship, and he didn’t call it that. Instead, he found an altar “to the unknown god” and began to preach to them about One they had never known. He found common ground. Can’t we do the same?
