Article June 17, 2019 Issue

Resolving impasses: My way, or God’s way?

Kevin Graunke

Originally published in The Christian Science Monitor’s Christian Science Perspective column, January 23, 2019.

In a commencement address at Dartmouth College nearly twenty years ago, Fred Rogers compared our world to a magnificent jewel, adding that we are facets of that jewel. He said, “In the perspective of infinity, our differences are infinitesimal. We are intimately related. May we never even pretend that we are not.”

It struck me recently how relevant that thought is. I was feeling increasingly upset by the adamant, self-serving tone that marks so much of public debate on important issues—where both sides line up behind an all-or-nothing approach, the main focus being which side wins the argument, not what might actually be accomplished.

But then I began thinking of what my own experience has taught me: that the most significant progress is made when I pray to embrace and respect what God’s will is and what will serve the greater good. Whenever I seek His way, my way becomes far less entrenched, far less self-important, opening the door to solutions that benefit all involved.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

No longer busy and tired