Well, I Think…

Opinions.

Lots and lots of them. Floating around like balloons asking to be popped. Daring us to disagree with bloated analysis of life inexperienced.

We all have them, we all blow them up and admire them. We might even take them out to share with friends or post them on facebook and wait for the masses to ask for more. We’ve sacrificed our very breath to enclosed ideas that form a “truth” we can’t prove, because it’s not truth at all, it’s opinion, and if it isn’t popped from initial scrutiny, it will eventually lose air and shrivel.

Not before we’ve regretted it though.

How often I’ve regretted my self blown thought bubbles released to the public, even if it’s only one set of ears. What a waste of my breath and their time.

“The Lord knows the thoughts of man,
That they are a mere breath.” Psalm 94:11 (NASB)

“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, ‘He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness’; and again, ‘The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.'” I Corinthians 3:19-20 (NASB)

Not all opinions are bad, any more than a mere breath is bad, but if an opinion is a breath, Truth is a heartbeat. Truth compels life. Truth pushes past the ideas and the emotion and never blinks as it rushes to do what it was inspired to do. It has no passion but one. To keep the heart beating love. Love. God is Love, Christ is Truth, no man comes to the Father without Christ.

You cannot fully experience Love, without Truth.

This is why I am distancing myself, slowly but surely, from opinions. Yours, mine, and especially people I don’t know. It’s a difficult separation, because that breath of opinion feels like life. Breath feels like passion, and understanding and sometimes even wisdom. It won’t keep me going though.

My dear friend Pastor Sandy said it first, “I want to be a woman of no opinion.”

“Well, I think…”

It really doesn’t matter what I think. What does the Word of God say?

I still say it. I still find myself musing through the filters of my experience and limited understanding and hear from my lips, “In my opinion…” and it almost sounds funny now. It’s a bit of a joke really…my opinion.

If you ask, I’ll tell you what I think, but I’d rather we both look to the Scripture and find out what’s going to spring up life inside us.

I’d rather speak Truth and find Love.

How should I respond to a friend’s pain? My opinion of her enemy is what wants to flow out of me, but the truth about the Comforter is so much more productive.

How do I react to my own disappointments? My opinion about my circumstances is what I want to defend with, but the truth of God’s promises will sustain much better.

How do I patch the wounds of my boys when they’ve been hurt by a so called friend? How do I explain the ugliness of bullies, unkind words, impatient adults, unfair leaders and unknown strangers? How do I help them understand war and threats and predators and politics? How do I raise children in a world that’s constantly changing? Truth.

The weight and constant stretching of circumstances will render an opinion useless as soon as it is spoken. Opinions are like old technology, they are obsolete as soon as a new idea burns our eyes on social media. Opinions are given more than ever today, but they are also changing more than ever, they have to bend and compensate for other opinions, or arguments that threaten their fragile skin. They are loud, but they aren’t strong. They are inflated, and they loom large, but they have no substance. People are constantly looking for them because we all want truth. We are all looking for that sustaining heartbeat that holds up one side or another so we know where to stand, but Truth isn’t interested in sides.

Truth is interested in Love. In perpetuating God into our individual circumstances and watching us walk out the Word in confidence and joy.

“Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart, And lean not on YOUR OWN understanding; In ALL your ways ACKNOWLEDGE HIM, And He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (emphasis added)

Isn’t it interesting that the Word leaves no room for our opinions? At no point does God give us an option to walk a path according to our feelings, according to our assumptions or reasoning. He shows us the path and then says, “walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21) How arrogant to know He is God and then attempt to tell Him what’s best.

There will be times in the life of a Christian when God asks us to stand up for something we don’t understand, to walk through something we have no experience in, to step out over an abyss that we see no bridge over and if we are still enamored with our own opinion more than the Word of God, we won’t do it.

Sometimes we wonder how some of God’s children seem to get the exciting tasks while we are struggling to balance life in a pew. The problem is, God doesn’t intend for us to sit out our faith. When Jesus called His disciples He said, “follow me.” When He showed up walking on a stormy sea, only one disciple took him literally and got out of the boat to meet him. That’s Peter, the one who made a lot of mistakes, the one whose opinion got him into a lot of trouble, the one who had to learn things the hard way often, but he’s also the one who preached to thousands, raised people from the dead, whose very shadow brought healing, Peter was the one who didn’t just sit in the boat, he followed hard. He followed close, making mistakes along the way, but all the time he was learning to walk in Truth instead of opinion.

The last few verses in Peters last epistle warn against opinion:
“and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” 2 Peter 3:15-18

There will forever be trends to be caught up in. Guard your heart against opinion. Only Truth will produce Love.

I challenge you to grow in Truth. To put aside your “Well, I think…” statements and your own ideas of who God is and what He expects of you, and to follow hard after His heart. Taking up your sword (the Word of God) daily. More than you read a devotional, more than you hear from a pastor or inspirational speaker, more than you study the motivational and greatly inspired words of authors and teachers, know the Word for yourself. Not because these are bad sources of wisdom, but because until you know the Word of God you cannot discern deception. You won’t know when you’re hearing opinion and when you are hearing truth. Truth sets you free when you know it. Truth leads to love and not condemnation. Truth is a treasure you cannot afford to miss. Dig until you find it.