You're Different...I'm Better

Since when did “you’re different” translate to “that makes me better than you”?  There is this whole political thing going on right now, with ideas and beliefs being thrown around left and right, so maybe I am a bit more sensitive to it these days, but I think politics is the effect not the cause.

Take a good look around at people; pair them up in any grouping you want, skin color, income level, gender, you name it, put any two people together and their differences will be greater than their similarities.  You will never find someone who thinks just like you on every subject.  And I’m thinking – at least where I am concerned – that’s a good thing.  

Now we do tend to hang around with people who are similar to us, in our thinking and beliefs, that just makes us more comfortable, and I am okay with that.  It isn’t a lot of fun to be continually on the defensive trying to justify what you’ve just said, or to have someone constantly questioning you or your motives.  But what I don’t understand; we seem to lack the ability to allow someone to think differently, not enjoy what we enjoy, find pleasure in something we deem a waste of time, without somehow translating in our minds, “I’m better than that”.

 

Okay, don’t read here what I am not saying.  There are certain beliefs that are based on The Truth and I will defend them to my death.  And there are certain behaviors that are not just unacceptable, they are wrong.  Again, I will always stand on those things being wrong and may very well tell you so.

I remember my husband telling someone “you better believe something strongly enough to be willing to defend it, otherwise it isn’t worth believing”, and I couldn’t agree more.  There is nothing wrong with preferences, beliefs, taking a stand, holding a ground, putting up a fight for a just cause, or defending the truth.  In fact I think more of us should be doing that.

Let’s just try to remember that our preferences, beliefs, and the stand we choose to take, the truth we know so well and desire to defend; those things don’t make us better than someone else.  If I have come to learn something, by way of research, instruction, or the grace of God, and you have not yet grasp this knowledge, it isn’t because I am above you.  And if you have discovered something amazing and I don’t see it yet, you’re not just that much better than me, we are just different.  You don’t think the same way I do and I don’t think the same way you do…isn’t that what makes life interesting?