Have you ever thought that people who disagreed with you were crazy? Have you ever said this to them or about them? You have clear direction in the Sermon on the Mount not to make such statements or accusations. This is particularly true about those who function normally and exhibit no typical symptoms of insanity, and disagreeing with you does not qualify as this. Other people see the world from a different perspective. Could it be that their views make sense to them within their paradigms as much as yours do to you within yours?

My word says that knowledge puffs up. Have you seen this to be true, that when people have information it gives them an inflated sense of their own importance? Do you find this to be an attractive quality in people? Knowledge is desirable, but the problems associated with it go back to the very beginning. Is there a way to obtain knowledge that leaves you more humble rather than less so? A transformative encounter will accomplish this for you.

Do you like to play games? Games have rules that all parties must agree to for the game to be successful. Not everyone likes to play games, but there are other activities that have rules as well, such as court proceedings, or even just the rules of the road for driving a car. You can look these up as readily available information, and everyone is subject to the law of the land. Are there rules to life in a larger sense? These are not published and universally agreed to, but you have clearly observed that some approaches are successful and others are not.

Do you carry out the Great Commission? What sort of responses do you encounter? Do you prefer those who are indifferent to those who oppose you? This is a way to avoid conflict, but not a strategy for success. Those who have started their spiritual journey will engage with you even if they don’t agree with you. Those who have not will find the whole subject to be boring. I likened my own generation to children who would not dance to music or mourn for a dirge. They had become indifferent and unresponsive.