Relationships, trust, and Stories

#79

Friend,

"We come to our conclusions about things based on the relationships that we are in, the people that we trust, and the story that makes sense to us." Elizabeth Oldfield

Relationships, trust, and stories.

We like to think that we make decisions based on logic, reasoning, and argument, but, well, evidence doesn’t back that up.

We see this in sports. What you think happened in a particular game is more influenced by whom you are cheering for than what actually happened.

And we see this in our lives. We think what we think because someone we trust thinks it too. Not 100%, but I know that I’ve thought, “If Dr. Mulholand wrote it, then I believe it.” (You should too by the way, the man was a genius.)

Here’s what I want you to know:

1. Choose your people and your sources carefully.

   1. I listen and read a fair amount of sports podcasts and articles, and what I have noticed is that the people who avoid drama and “takes” end up seeing things much more clearly. And I don’t get caught up in as much ridiculousness.

2. Choose people to trust who see the world differently.

   1. I’m honestly not as good at this one as I want to be, but find people whose perspective you can trust even if you don’t agree with their conclusions. Open yourself to people from other walks of life and experiences. You’ll be amazed at how others see things.

3. Choose to trust God’s story.

   1. I preached a sermon on Gideon (here’s the link), and one of the things that I saw was that Gideon didn’t trust God’s story. Being people of the scriptures is essential because it provides a communal, redemptive, graceful, and transformative story in which we can all find ourselves as part of it.

Love,

Aaron