For many years I considered all secular music to be ungodly and poison for the soul (insert passionate southern Baptist voice).  There’s just nothing good about it, I thought.  And I took every opportunity I could to make my conviction known.  If I thought it was bad, every Christian should as well.

To this day I consider the Kansas City Chiefs to be the greatest football team in the history of the world.  There was a time I would get all worked up trying to convince others to agree.  If they disagreed (which almost all did) I wasn’t the one with the problem.   They were.  And were probably going to hell anyway.  Just kidding.  I’m sure Chiefs fans aren’t the only ones in heaven…

As I reflect over these positions, three things come to mind.  The first is that I no longer consider all secular music to be ungodly.  In fact, I’ve been spiritually fed in greater ways by some secular songs than some Christian songs. 

The second is that I still consider the KC Chiefs to be the greatest football team in the history of the world. 

And the third is that my underlying attitude regarding both has changed significantly.  It’s not that I can’t take and stand upon a position.  It’s that I no longer have an insatiable need to convince anyone else that my conviction should be yours as well.

All of this was regurgitated into my mind as I listened to a woman explain why something was the way it was because of a lesson God taught her personally.  As a result, others faced the possibility of not being rewarded in a positive way. 

The problem was that those being deprived of much deserved recognition weren’t struggling in the same way this particular woman had.  It was almost as if the whole group was being punished because of a lesson God taught one individual for a personal reason.

Here’s the point:  Just because God taught you a lesson you needed personally doesn’t mean it’s something to be forced upon anyone else.  Or, in another way, just because you have formed a strong conviction about something doesn’t mean that anyone else should share that conviction.  A lesson meant for you shouldn’t be assumed to be a lesson for all. 

But that’s easier said than done.  I know what it’s like to feel like God’s given revelation into a particular area and then become like the energizer bunny on crack, trying to get everyone else to reach the same conclusion.

If we slow down enough to hear God’s wisdom we might just be able to pick up on the fact that everyone is at a different place in our shared desire to look like Jesus.  And that the things God teaches us are often meant just for us.  The possibility exists that if we try to force it on others we might cause great harm to them and us.

Then there’s always the chance the deep seated conviction we hold today will be nothing but a distant memory a year from now as we’ve matured enough to see we didn’t have it quite right.  Like the secular music thing. 

Crow tastes bitter.

But to bring some balance into this, there are times in which God shares something with us that is meant to be shared with a greater audience.  It happens all the time and thank goodness for it.  We all have so many great things to share with each other.  Things that can be valuable in moving us toward the image of Jesus. 

Perhaps a valuable question we should all be asking when revelation is received is, “Lord, is this just for me or is it for others as well?”  Mary pondered a great deal of things in her heart.  We should probably follow her example more often than we do.

Blessings,

Jesse and Kara Birkey