Listening, Getting Things Right, and Rest

It is always of great use to listen to the implications others see in their positions which they hold. Often we might guess what the implications should be in their positions and we may or may not be wrong.

Is it that other people are inconsistent and they might not have implications in their system that should be there? I suppose this is always possible however often we see mystery in things.

It is not common to see logical thinkers have views which have an interesting tension. This is not simply in a field such as theology: it carries in many fields.

You see large systems of thought often have many nuances. Often a position is not fully rejected but partially affirmed with qualifications.

And this is the great issue in communication; it is that often others attempt to carry out the implications of the thought of others. In doing so they often create positions which the author of the ideas does not hold.

It is interesting to see many great theologians or great thinkers get others' positions in their field so completely wrong. Often, I suppose, many people try to do too much.

Maybe they have a critique in mind of a figure and they have a few months to write a book. In those few months they produce a book of some value which gets the other thinker wildly wrong.

It is often the case that many positions which we disagree with are not so easy to critique as we would think. We might undertake a nuanced critique but that would take a very long time.

Often you will see too many people in fields taking short cuts to try to prove their point. The reality is we often accomplish so little because we do too much.

We try to do ten things and do all ten in a mediocre way and very little good results. If we had simply done one or two things we might have had better results.

Billy Graham near the end of his ministry was asked of his deepest regret. He said that he preached too much and spent too little time in the Word and prayer.

You see sometimes we can accomplish more by doing less. This is why Jesus so frequently withdrew into solitude in the wilderness.

Keeping the Sabbath is having faith that we can do more in six days with God than seven without God.