Have you ever noticed how so many people are afraid of being wrong? Why do we focus so much attention on either being right or wrong? Isn\u2019t there more to life than this binary way of thinking? When we base our thoughts, decisions, beliefs, etc., on being either right or wrong, one or the other, we cause division in our world. For example, if I believe I am right in a certain belief, then aren\u2019t I implying that anyone who believes different than me is wrong? Life is supposed to be a journey, yet we\u2019ve made it into a competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is prevalent not only in society, but in the church as well. We, as the church in general, are often so afraid of being wrong. We\u2019ve been conditioned to view life through this binary lens. Sadly, the fear of being wrong keeps us from being open to what else might be out there. When we put God in our little human box of what we know about him, we keep our views of God small. There is so much more of God to discover, yet too often we\u2019re afraid to step out in discovery. Fear is a trap that keeps us in a box. History tells us that those who choose to step out in discovery are at risk of being labeled heretics if what they discover is outside of the church\u2019s current knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Look back at the life of Galileo. Galileo Galilei, born in 1564, made some amazing scientific studies and discoveries. Some of his discoveries have been proven to be true while others have not. Getting hung up on whether his discoveries were right or wrong misses the point. Galileo wasn\u2019t afraid to think outside of the box. It\u2019s important to allow yourself to think outside the box. If we aren\u2019t open to looking at theories outside of our current beliefs, how will we learn? Sometimes we are so afraid of being wrong that we tone down our inquisitive, explorative thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Galileo made some important discoveries that complimented the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus, stating that the earth and the other planets revolved around the sun. This caused an uproar as the Catholic church of the day believed in the geocentric theory, stating that the earth is the center of the universe and therefore the sun and other planets revolve around the earth. Unfortunately, the church at the time was not open to the possibility that they didn\u2019t have all the information. They weren\u2019t willing to look at something that was outside of their frame of reference. If we\u2019re not willing to look beyond what we presently know, then how will we grow? The Catholic church at the time believed very literally in certain Bible verses. Psalm 104:5 MKJV says, \u201cHe laid the earth on its foundations; it shall not be shaken forever.\u201d Taken literally, the earth does not move. Ecclesiastes 1:5 MKJV says, \u201cThe sun also arises and goes down, and hurries to its place where it arose.\u201d Taken literally, this shows that the sun moves, not the earth. When we take Scriptures and see them only in one literal way, we limit all the other potentials of those particular verses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bible has so many layers in it. The things we can learn through it are never ending. I think back to years ago in our family devotions when our children were small. I had read the story of Daniel and the lions\u2019 den and was asking each of the kids what they thought about it. For the most part I got some pretty basic answers about keeping God number one in your life and obeying God, things like that. Our youngest, who was four years old at the time, sat quietly thinking for a moment before finally giving this answer, \u201cI think that leaders of countries have to be very careful about what kinds of laws they make.\u201d I thought that was great insight for a four-year-old. How often do we, as church leaders, think of the consequences of the \u2018rules\u2019 we create for the church? Are we liberating people or keeping them in bondage? Do we allow freedom of thought, or do we make everyone conform to our way of thinking? Are we allowing expansion to take place or are we limiting people? These are definitely things to think about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Going back to Galileo, the church was pretty harsh towards him, considering him to be a heretic because of his out of the box thinking. In 1616, the Catholic church declared the heliocentric theory to be heretical, banned books on the topic, and ordered people to stay away from believing, teaching, or defending the views of heliocentrism. Galileo was ordered to abstain from teaching or defending the heliocentric theory in any way whether speaking or writing. Galileo seemed to slow down for a time on this topic although it never left him. In 1632, he published his book \u2018Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems\u2019 which caused an uproar as it favored the heliocentric theory. In 1633, Galileo was again brought before the Inquisition, found guilty of heresy, and placed under house arrest until his death in 1642.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Galileo didn\u2019t allow fear to stop him. He was passionate about his discoveries, and he was willing to be misunderstood. In order to bring about change we must be willing to be misunderstood. It\u2019s not comfortable, but growth often isn\u2019t comfortable. Think of the growth that takes place physically in a human being. As the body stretches and grows there can be physical pain felt within the body as well as all the awkward stages that arise. Remember, many who have brought about major change were often thought to be heretics. Those thought to be heretics for their out of the box thinking often weren\u2019t acknowledged for the change they helped bring about until well after their death. Don\u2019t be afraid to be different. Remember, different doesn\u2019t necessarily mean heretical. It wasn\u2019t until 1718 that the ban on Galileo\u2019s works was lifted and it wasn\u2019t until 1835 that the ban was lifted on Copernicus\u2019 book. Finally, in 1992, Pope John Paul II apologized for the church\u2019s wrongful condemning of Galileo. That was 359 years after he was found guilty of heresy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I guess my takeaway from this is to encourage us to not be afraid to step into the unknown. People may not always understand the direction you\u2019re going in and that\u2019s okay. Likewise, you and I may not understand the direction someone else is going in and that\u2019s okay too. Encourage each other, lift each other up, be there for each other. Choose not to criticize or ridicule another if their beliefs don\u2019t line up with yours. God can lead us through change if we\u2019re open to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you ever noticed how so many people are afraid of being wrong? Why do we focus so much attention on either being right or wrong? Isn\u2019t there more to life than this binary way of thinking? When we base our thoughts, decisions, beliefs, etc., on being either right or wrong, one or the other, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":97,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/09\/Robin.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242,"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions\/242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therainbowcentre.ca\/overtherainbow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}