Humility in Perspective
It seems culturally we are at a crossroads of defensiveness and aggressiveness. When faced with disagreement regarding our viewpoints do we feel personally attacked? Do we get defensive? Do we go on the attack ourselves? After our emotions subside and we find clarity do we call into question the source of our anger? Why we felt the way we did?
Why are we so confused?
More Voices, Less Listening
We’ve lost the finer points of perspective and empathy over the past few decades. The world was a smaller place before the instant worldwide connectivity of the Internet evolved into existence. Our town square became larger with more voices and yet it seems our relationships, over the years, became more curated. It’s as if we, over time, gathered into smaller groups that shared similar ideals, similar viewpoints, similar opinions, and similar activities. Eventually we firmly planted ourselves, and our identities in our group. Through this the ideals, viewpoints, and opinions of our group became amplified, louder, more integrated personally for us than the voices of the “other” groups.
This integration of group thinking into our personal identity has lead us to confuse disagreement on viewpoints and opinion with attacks personally on our character. Which causes us to also take attacks on our groups as personal attacks on us. This can become an endless cycle in which we defensively grapple to our group’s viewpoints and opinions closing our minds and ears to disagreeing viewpoints, even if those disagreeing viewpoints are valid and true.
Perspectives
Each of us has a worldview that we have formed over the time of our existence, through which we interpret events and facts that we experience. Our faith, families, friends, cultures, geography, education, profession, and the media we consume amongst many other things uniquely forms our worldview. No one else sees things the exact same way you do. Each of us has a different perspective than others. That difference of perspective might be slight or rather vast. We will tend to group ourselves with others that have only a slight difference in this perspective and be in opposition with those that have a vast difference.
Humbleness
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” - 1 Corinthians 13:12 ESV
We must always remember that our viewpoint, or lens, was formed unique to us, we will see things differently than others. In this we realize that we have bias, or a tint to our lens with which we view the world.
Our humbleness must come from this thinking. We can be confident in forming our viewpoint based on the facts we have today, but we must not hold so fast to that view that we never analyze or think through it again. We must understand that no matter our confidence our views will always have bias in them, just like all of the views we disagree with. We can then come together humbly to debate and learn from each other, not come to stubbornly prove the other person is wrong.
Approach each conversation as an opportunity to learn and gain understanding with an inquisitive, loving, child-like heart. Not with defensiveness, irritation, or an attitude of proving yourself right or them wrong, but rather with a goal of gaining understanding of the others viewpoint.