My wife and I just had a tiff about something and we are trying to resolve it. The conversation goes something like this;

• I am upset because when you said ………….. you made me feel ……………
• No, no, this is not what I meant, what I meant is ……………..
• Oh, thanks for clarifying. I get it now. I am no longer upset………
  We hug and kiss and all is hunky dory.

I hope you are either rolling on the floor laughing or shaking your head saying ‘liar’. Wouldn’t life be just grand if indeed this is how any two people resolved conflict? Of course it would be, but it just is not. Although the incident just occurred, and the facts are very fresh, each person recalls to the other what the facts looked like from ‘MY’ perspective.  Creating further upsetting and escalation of the tiff at hand rather than resolving it. Neither will give into the other’s opinion, because each truly believes in ‘THEIR’ set of facts. Then how does it get resolved?? Typically it goes something like this;

• Step away from each other for hopefully a shorter than longer period of time
• One will come to the other, best if this is alternating and not always the same person
• 1> If it is the perceived offender; “I did not mean it that way, but I apologize that it came across that way and let’s not fight over this as I love you too much to have you upset like that”
  2> If it is the perceived offended; “What you said hit me that way and that’s why I got upset, but let’s not fight over this as I love you too much to stay upset like that”
  3> Many a time, with no conversation at all, after a bit of time, resume life as normal not discussing this incident that caused the tiff.
• Whichever way it occurs, the love we have for each other allows us to rise above and transcend the incident. For if there is no love, the incidents take over and capture the relationship hostage, and if that happens then the final outcome is ugly.

So what’s the point? The point is actually two points;

• Facts are a matter of the ‘mind’ and actually very flawed because they are invariably affected or skewed by our mind’s perception, for they are indeed opinion that we believe in as fact.
• Love is a matter of the ‘heart’ and not of the mind. Love is passion, affection, pain, excitement, care, ache, pleasure, enjoyment, agony, delight, satisfaction, etc. Every one of these depicts an ACTIVE description. Each one of them is an EXPERIENCE in and of itself. Read them again and FEEL them. Go on, read them again, but this time EXPERIENCE each one.

And FAITH my friend, like love, is a matter of the heart and not of the mind. Faith as well is ACTIVE. It is not to be proven it is to be experienced. Nurture your Faith as faith is not a target or a destination, rather it is a flower that needs to be attended and fed so that it may grow, and no one can pass by without noticing it. To keep it real, think of how our culture uses the word ‘faith’. We say ‘have faith’ primarily in situations of crisis; cancer, death, loss of a job and so on. We are essentially using faith as a mind tool to help with a broken heart. Let’s bring back faith into our hearts for this is where it belongs.

Someone a lot smarter than I, many years ago, grouped ‘faith’, ‘hope’ and ‘love’ together. A beautiful trilogy that is interdependent and each is a matter of the heart. Thank you Paul. Please think about if you are asked to describe faith, your faith, how will you describe it? Evaluate your answer and ask yourself, “am I describing a mind matter or a heart matter?”  I want you to know that this is a continuing exploration to simply move our Creator our Lord from our minds and the knowledge we have about Him, to our hearts. God is indeed LOVE and we just need not to argue about what His love to us means or translates to, rather we need to hone in on what it means to LOVE HIM.

So have you thought about these questions; Did God intend to have so many divisions within His church/ Is God’s LOVE for man means to fight over what Jesus said or meant/ Is God looking at us delighted about our divisions or sad? Simple questions begging a simple answer, and that answer is; we have created the divisions and using FAITH, HOPE & LOVE we can undo them and reunite. It is possible not impossible. Why? Because it is indeed God’s plan for us to be united in Him. ALL united in Him. Till next week 🙂