A Tale of Two Cindies

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While I am not a very techy person and only recently discovered how to pause a Facebook story long enough to read it before it crosses over to the Internet abyss, I do enjoy me some social media from time to time. Facebook is my favorite.

I have two Facebook friends we shall call Cindy. While they do in fact share the same first name, it has been changed for the purposes of this post to protect the innocent (and lend cadence to my Dickensian title). 

One Cindy is the most vocally liberal Facebook friend I have and the other the most vocally conservative. 

I often giggle at "the two Cindies" in my Facebook story feed and how their shared name seems to be their only similarity. 

But in truth, the politically charged posts of both Cindies are full of passion, conviction, love, and hate. They are two sides of the same coin. 

Sometimes I admire their boldness. Sometimes I agree wholeheartedly with what they have to say. Sometimes their posts make me want to throw my phone at the wall. Often their posts inspire a visceral reaction in me that makes me question why I bother to read them at all. 

But here's why I do: they get me thinking.

I need their perspectives, which often differ from my own, to challenge me. My moderate, peace-loving preferences tend toward complacency when divorced from tension. 

Somewhere in the tension of the rope pulled so tight in this tug-of-war of ideologies lies the Truth. 

When we hear something we disagree with, our tendency is to try to prove it wrong. This can be a combative and destructive tendency, or it can be a personal journey of discovery that begins by digging into the Word. 

Sometimes, when we dig in, the Bible backs up our point of view. Sometimes, when we dig deeper, we see that it backs up a different one. Sometimes it's both; sometimes it's neither. But it's rarely as black and white as we'd like to think. 

I believe God allows the tension because tension is dynamic. Tension leads to action. Tension leads to growth. Tension, appropriately harnessed, can even lead to unity.

Let us let it always lead us 

Not into strife, but back to Jesus.


Author's note: This post is in no way a reference to any of my friends, Facebook or otherwise, who are actually named Cindy. :)


 


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