Today's Daily Lesson is attributed to St. Francis of Assisi:
Lord make Me an instrument of Your peace
Where there is hatred let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness joy.
O Divine master grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled as to console
To be understood, as to understand.
To be loved, as to love
For it's in giving that we receive
And it's in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it's in dying that we are born...
To eternal life.
Amen.
Today is the Feast Day of St. Francis and a good day to remember we have little control over how we are understood. What we say and what we do is often interpreted by the experience and perspective and also prejudice of others. We do our best to speak and act as clearly as we can, but at the end of the day communicating who we are and what we are about is difficult and challenging. This is a part of the reason why St. Francis said we are to "Preach the Gospel at all times, and only when necessary use words."
We do have more control over how we understand. A good practice for today is to try to understand more fully and deeply. Part of this requires that we suspend judgment. I've been trying to practice this. When in conversation with others, I pay attention to when feelings of judgment come up in me. Rather than reacting defensively with harshness or rejection, I'm trying to instead say, "Tell me more." That's an especially difficult thing to do when what others are telling us seems to lack understanding of what we're saying or what we're about.
Everyone wants to be understood. It is an original human impulse. I suppose it's why we evented screaming.
But God gave us two ears and only one tongue. So let us try to listen deeply. Let us try to really hear. We don't have to agree. But we would do well to try to understand.
Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
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