Forget it. No. Absolutely not. Are you kidding me? That’s ridiculous! …But you never know. Maybe one day I might. Hopefully. If I can. Okay why not? Sure. No problem. I’d be happy to. Can’t wait! Here’s the thing about human nature: People change, either for the better or for worse, but there’s always change. We can’t seem to exist without change.
The down side to this is well known: good things don’t stay good for long. G.K. Chesterton said that a white post doesn’t stay white for long… If you want it to be particularly white you have to paint it over and over again; you have to constantly move in the direction of where you want to be…
But the upside to this part of human nature is that there’s always hope. Just because someone is adamantly against something doesn’t mean he will always be. And just because someone is adamantly running in the wrong direction doesn’t mean there will never be an opening to make a u-turn. The first step toward agreeing (with God) about anything is usually disagreeing. That’s just how we are.
Knowing this makes it possible to be friends and care about people without trying to control their lives. It makes it possible to disagree about something really important without getting too worked-up or writing the other person off.
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