An old friend of mine once told me an analogy that when there is plenty of water in the river, you don’t feel the rocks, but when the water levels drop, you feel every jarring blow against the bottom of your boat. I believe he was using the metaphor of water levels to reflect the overall health of the economy or maybe our personal cash in the bank, but I’ve found it incredibly helpful in understanding the effects of our current anxiety levels on our culture, faith, families, and friendships.
Today, the cultural empathy level feels like it is at an all-time low. Not only is the water level drained out, but it has become downright dangerous trying to navigate through the treacherous obstacles. Remember when we all used to get along so well? Where did all these rocks come from?
The truth is, they’ve been there all along. But now we see them. We feel them. it is all we can do to avoid them.
So many pastors I know are grieving the effect this has had on their churches. I share their concern. Our ability to empathize feels like it is nonexistent. Our willingness to listen, to consider other viewpoints, and to even, [gasp], change our minds, has become a thing of the past. It would seem that the way forward must involve some level of digging in, circling the wagons, and riding out the storm.
But what if there is another way. Not a new way, but instead an old way. A path of wisdom that embraced questions. A pursuit of understanding and discernment whose only entrance requirement was a humble mind and contrite heart. Where truth didn’t hide from questions but embraced them. Where we could wrestle, even with God himself, and come out changed.
Maybe today we can actually address the issues that have been lurking beneath the surface all this time. Now that we can no longer ignore the rocks, maybe it would be possible to pay attention to the issues that we normally gloss over, ignore, and even deny.
This plumbing the depths of the heart happens to be at the center of our biblical faith journey. We are invited to heal and to grow. We are encouraged to question everything and cling to the good. To live into the questions, with the confidence that the truth, in the end, will out.
What if this moment is a unique opportunity to reclaim this non-anxious path of wisdom? Maybe then we could see each other not as different factions and tribes, but instead as fellow sojourners from whom we can learn and grow. Maybe, if we can stop clutching to our answers and insisting on being right we can instead hold the truth with an open hand and begin to understand and discern.
And as we do, I believe, we will feel the anxiety levels decrease. And the water levels will rise. We will respond with patience and kindness instead of suspicion and defense. When we lower our guard we begin to see more clearly. We begin to trust again. To listen to each other, and grow.