Be Right

As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

 - From 2 Timothy 4

I came from a marginal group within a marginal group. The generation of my grandparents went through a period of being shunned by others, because of their religion. 

We were taught to be proud of that. The closer you get to the Truth, the fewer people there will be, to support you. 

Everybody always wants to be "right" these days. Well, that is to say . . . people have always wanted to be right. We are an argumentative species. He like to be noticed, to be looked up to. We're competitive. We crave the sense of being better than others. We like to be smarter, better looking, more successful, richer. 

But the evidence that we're right, or better, is always measured according to how many people are with us. We want to be able to say we're "on the right side of history", and to support out assertion by participating in some big massive public demonstration. 

But I feel . . . down to the marrow . . . that if you are in a large group, you are most likely not on the right side of anything. Mobs have qualities that are decidedly not reflective. Their values and positions are not arrived at through some careful, deliberative process. 

The person that is out of control with anger is probably not right. 

When your motives are in any way selfish, your motives are suspect - as are your conclusions.

If your objective can be tied back to some personal, physical, immediate need gratification, then your objective should be questioned, and you should welcome the questioning. 

Paul writes, in his letter to Timothy, to "always be sober." So there's the first thing. Don't get drunk. Don't get tipsy. Keep your mind clear. Avoid addictive behaviors and tendencies. We could easily ask, between two advocates of competing views: "Which one drinks?" And if we are being honest, the one that does not drink should, at least in that regard, be held as a more reputable witness. 

But we don't. Since the non-drinker is "not normal," we will rule out his or her perspective. And the crowd wins over the individual, again.

When you're being right, you're being shunned. You're being ridiculed. You're being marginalized. In the end, our education, our culture, and our values, even . . . are more directed towards "notice me!!" and "it's what the majority wants" than "be right."

Be right, anyway. You may not feel surrounded by the other right people. But you're definitely in way better company.