No one is Objective

“Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions.
-Proverbs 18:2

The Philadelphia Eagles won a close football game on Sunday in a Super Bowl rematch against the Kansas City Chiefs. On one crucial play, several of the Eagles players jumped offsides a split second before the play started. It was not called. 

Everyone was watching the same broadcast across the country--the same announcers, the same camera angles. 

Chiefs fans' responses: 
That was blatant cheating. The refs are on the Eagles side. 
That moment changed the entire game.  
Even if there wasn't a foul, that play shouldn't be legal. 
While we're at it, their Super Bowl trophy should be revoked. 
All Eagles fans are lowlife scum-suckers.

Eagles fans' responses: 
That clearly didn't affect the outcome of the game.
Plenty of calls were already missed against the Chiefs. 
We are obviously the better team anyway. 
The Chiefs are the actual cheaters, and they're just upset when they don't get the advantage. Go cry to your mothers. 
Nobody likes us and we don't care. 

In the interest of maintaining my clear neutrality, I will not tell you which perspective I found myself tempted toward--but let's be honest: 
We're all fools. 

Why such different responses? Everyone was looking at the same thing, weren't they? Yes, and no. 

My friends, no one is objective. We all see the world through complicated lenses. Some of them we do not choose. Some we do. 

The family you grew up in and the town you lived in have shaped your assumptions about the world and how you see things. 
How much money you make, your marital status, your gender, your cultural and racial background... each of these things affects how you see reality. And don't forget the churches you've attended, the news stations you watch, the apps you scroll through, and the variety (or lack) of people you interact with. 

And certainly, let's not overlook the sports teams you grew up cheering for. 

We are a subjective people. Many of our opinions are made long before the actual moment that we think we're forming them. Despite the most reasoned and seemingly impartial approaches we can take, we are humans whose perspectives are formed by hundreds of factors. 

And that's unavoidable--normal, even. But along with that, there's this tiny voice inside each of our heads, barely audible, that tells us: you have all the information you need about everyone else. Your perspective is the true one, and it's the righteous one. And everyone who's not in agreement deserves your indignation. Because the truth is objectively obvious all the time.  

Want a case study? Try asking 100 Christians from different churches to list 5 things that the Bible is clear and obvious about. How many hundreds of different answers do you think you'll get? 

No one is as objective as they think they are. And that's okay.

We don't need perfect objectivity to be compassionate. We don't need to be objective to seek understanding. We simply need to walk in the grace and humility of following a suffering, selfless servant king. 

There have been hundreds of thousands of words written about current events lately, and social media algorithms are working overtime to simultaneously confirm and infuriate you. I have no desire to add to the noise, the fear, or the rage. 

But I want to add to understanding. And I want to add to compassion for the many who have been harmed recently. They've been harmed by violent shootings, violent demeaning rhetoric, and violent division. 

Airing our perspectives has a place. But the reality is that where we stand determines what we see, and all of us are standing with partially obstructed views.

When we do "air" our opinions, it must come with deep humility, after seeking understanding and desiring faithfulness to Jesus--not the name that has become an empty permission slip to baptize our hatred and desire to control others--but the radical Jewish Palestinian rabbi who revealed God's character perfectly with sacrificial, other-oriented love and grace. 

We have a choice. We can endlessly argue about our rightness, creating cyclical debates and labeling massive groups of people. Or we can seek to understand. We can ask better questions and remove ourselves from the algorithmic (mob) mentality. We can move around into a position where we can see who is being harmed and why. And then we can work with the Spirit to be courageous healers. 

Jesus, may our desire for understanding lead us always into compassion. 

Peace,
Keith