All day long we go back and forth from issue to issue, disagreement to disagreement, debate to debate. It’s a pretty good chance that today at the coffee bar there are polarized debates that could happen, and maybe they will as winners and losers align and take their sides. It’s not always pretty but it is real. The same thing happens in offices all across the country over all kinds of issues. Disagreements are just part of work and that’s okay as if everyone agreed on all things then there wouldn’t be new ideas or the needed tension to challenge the status quo. But, what can’t happen is what happens too many times when people move beyond the issues and begin to take disagreements personally or turn an issue into a personal attack on someone else. I was recently at a dinner where new people were seated with each other and during the conversation one person began to move from a good debate to moving the conversation into a personal challenge. I had to intervene and tell the person, who I did not know, that that level of language and attack is inappropriate and unacceptable. The dinner was pretty cold after that. It is always easy to let a conversation or disagreement devolve into something that is not healthy. Here is what we need to remember. While it all seems so important right now and it seems worth fighting for, when the times change, or we move on, it is likely that what seemed so important will have dissolved or disappeared. But let’s hold on to the things that do last and put our focus there; “There are three things that will endure-faith, hope, and love-and the greatest of these is love.” Let’s today focus on these three things and let the other stuff go. And if the greatest focus can be on love, then the disagreements and arguments should stay just at the place where they should be.

Reference: 1 Corinthians 13:13 (New Living Testament)