Recently, I posted a blogpost about my Non-Negotiables when it comes to my faith and beliefs. I wrote it for my blog and didn’t really censor myself (not that I said anything bad) but it was picked up by Ministry Matters (for which I’m grateful).

I wrote that for me; to explain what I believe — what will never (though, never say never…?) change in my theology. It wasn’t about what others should believe and how their non-negotiables should be my non-negotiables. I wasn’t forcing anything onto others. It was just a “here’s what I believe” post.

I find it funny how a few folks were unsettled about what I believe.
They wanted to know if I subscribed to a certain atonement theory.
Or what about the resurrection? (I’m sorry I didn’t bring that up — to me it’s such an obvious that I didn’t even think twice. Without the resurrection, there is no Christianity.)

Who cares what I — someone you never met — believes in? I’d understand that you’d be concerned if I was trying to force you to believe what I believe. I wasn’t. I was just laying out what I believe for the sake of updating my blog.

But what I really need to do is to stop feeding into my ego by reading comments left on Ministry Matters or checking the traffic on my blog.
It does nothing but fills my big head with more air. I don’t need any more air, I need substance.

But there’s a desire to fix how someone thinks about you; or fix the way they interpreted what you wrote. Of course that’ll never happen. You respond to a comment, they’ll respond and you’ll have to respond to their response and you start going down this rabbit trail of responses.

In the words of Sweet Brown, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”

I love talking about what people believe. Love navigating through one another’s non-negotiables. Love talking about why our beliefs may differ on certain points. I love conversations like that. But the sad thing is, those conversations are far and few between because somehow it seemingly always devolve into “you need to believe what I believe in to be a good Christian” and “I’m right, you’re wrong.”
Recently, I had a conversation about Ferguson and Darren Wilson and that conversation ended with me being chided to “keep an open mind.”
What they really meant to say was, “You need to think like I do.” (Just a quick recap of that convo: All I was saying, even if Wilson had a broken eye socket — at the time was still unconfirmed– he’s still alive to let it heal. I couldn’t — and can’t — bring myself to think that Wilson did absolutely nothing wrong. Why I bother even getting in these conversations is beyond me…)

Which led me to write this post for Ministry Matters, inspired by a sermon that my District Superintendent gave at our church.

We all want to be in the right and want everyone to think like us — but we’re less invested in being righteous. Because being right is more ego-pleasing and easier than being righteous.

Anyway, if my non-negotiables were unsatisfying to your tastes, I apologize. #sorrynotsorry