The World Doesn't Need Your Opinion, It Needs Your Life

It's very difficult to provide updates when you feel like you're moving on a "lifetime in a single day" timeline. Each day is so deep, so full, and so transformative. Because of this, I think I'm going to move back into sharing stories rather than updates. I think I'm better at that anyway.

There's something incredible about mountains. Millenium of shifts and movements in our planet's crust, a solid foundation changing ever so slowly. Human life, on the other hand, moves so incredibly fast. I think I gravitate a little more towards the slow pace, which is why I like to hike. Leave the phone, leave the camera, and scramble on ahead with just food and water.

Right now, I live on about the shin, just above the foot of a mountain range. It’s nice to spend a free weekend hiking. I’m amazed when just how long it takes to escape the noise of what is actually a very quiet small town. It takes over an hour to rise hundreds of meters in elevation, yet the noise still remains. But, even with all the noise, I still turned around and cried at the beauty. I can’t explain it.

I’m the type of person who likes to depart from the trail, both on hikes and in life, I think. It’s just more exciting to depart from the path of thousands of footprints and wander off into the potentially unexplored wild. It’s also more exhausting. Instead of following the well-worn path that is flattened and softened, I was stumbling over loose rocks buried in pine-straw, seeking fun rock walls to climb, and getting all types of bumps and scratches (I call them hickies of love from the universe).

Instead of asking myself where this trail leads, I got to ask where I wanted to adventure and reach. I decided that the peak to the west looked pretty cool, and I started blazing my own trail. After a lot of blood, sweat, and time, I reconnected with the trail I had departed from. I realized that the trail would actually lead to the eastern summit that I saw on the map at the base of the mountain.

To make a long story short, I reached that summit. It was amazing. After a few minutes at the top, I saw Spanish Ibex (like a cool mountain goat, and my college friends should find this hilarious). I got excited and wanted to sneak up closer to them, so I ran quietly across the ridge. By the time I got to where they were, they had moved on to somewhere else, and I lost them. I watched some hawks float on the strong breeze instead. It was nice. The view was so nice, I decided to finally sit down.

I admired the beautiful world around me for a bit, and decided to mediate and listen to God. He said a lot, gave me visions, cleared my head, and lit my spirit on fire. I felt like a tree getting such a good downpour that it grew 20 feet in a day. I realized that a few hours before, I was wanting to make my own way up to some summit westward, and God had something so much better for me on His path.

After a whole bunch of hard-to-explain out-of-body-experience time literally sitting above clouds, I decided to move on back down the mountain. On my way, I passed a trail intersection, and figured there was no reason not to go check out that westward summit too. When I arrived to the peak, the clouds had rolled in from the sea. I was actually walking around on the inside of a cloud. It was like being in a dream. I spent some time up there, then made my way down, once again, off the trail. I got to descend on some pretty cool rock faces (wouldn’t recommend without a helmet), and then went through the terrible process of sliding down loose rocks, trying to stay upright. Lots of hickies from the universe involved, but finally reached the trail again, and finished the descent.

Why am I telling you this story? I don’t know, mostly because it was a lot of fun.

Also, it taught me a lot. Honestly, stuff happened on that mountain that will continue to teach me and impact me until I die, but one of the most tangible lessons is what I want to share with you. I had some cool finish line in mind, this western summit to reach off the trail. God had a way better plan for me on His path, then He ALSO brought me back to what I had planned. It wasn’t some great either-or, it was the amazing both-and of my loving God (I think this may be relevant later).

Again, this isn’t really my point, I just think it’s a nice story. I really didn’t even understand my whole experience until I got back down to the hustle and bustle of town. What I realized, was that I came back down different. I was more ready to just live and be who I am.

Life isn’t about just having mountain top experiences. It’s about the summit, the sweaty, grueling climb up, the departure from the trail and finding it again, the hours of meditation and realization, the bloody and dangerous climb back down, and mixing in as much fun and danger as possible. It all belongs.

Again, none of this is really my point, but I hope it encourages you. My point is actually what I realized much later, or maybe during, but who knows.

The world doesn’t need your opinion, it needs you. We live in this loud and fast society. As I believe is right and necessary, everyone has a voice. Unfortunately, we don’t all have an equal voice, but once it’s our turn to talk, or post, or tweet, we have a lot to say. (Obviously I include myself in this because I’m writing a blog). We all want to make sure the world knows our opinion, where we stand, which side we’re taking, and what we think about the other guys.

I do believe there is much we need to talk about. Conversations, hopefully and in theory, lead to actions, which lead to change, which hopefully and in theory, leads to improvement. It’s beautiful, in hope and in theory. The problem is, we’ve reduced it to dualistic thinking of right and wrong opinions. Religion, politics, culture, sports, ethics, morals, processes, and procedures. We try to limit this infinite, every-colored rainbow of life into black and white with no shades of gray, let alone all the beautiful colors. (Both-and, not either-or)

I have my opinion. My opinion is correct, yours is incorrect. The side I choose to stand on is the right side, and yours is the wrong side. To be honest we sound like a bunch of two year old kids, and it hurts my heart. Set aside those differences. Have an opinion but don’t be your opinion. Humans are a bit more beautifully complex than a or b, 1 or 2. And when someone doesn’t have the same opinion as you, find good common ground, and move forward in action trying to reach understanding leading to real change and improvement. It’s complex but it’s not complicated.

The reason I follow Jesus, is because He is not a man of opinion alone. He has them of course, and when the time is right He shares them, but most of His opinions centered around loving those you disagree with, helping those who need help, forgiving people no matter what, and trying to be a unified humanity. People who do this change the world for the better.

People who call themselves Christians like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa.

People who don’t call themselves Christians like Mahatma Gandhi and Elie Wiesel.

It wasn’t just the opinions of these people that changed the world, it was the actions that followed in how they lived their lives. (In my opinion Gandhi looked a whole lot more like Jesus than half of the millions of people who walk out of churches each Sunday. In fact, Gandhi said he agreed with all of Jesus’s words, actions, and teachings, but he wouldn’t be a Christians because other Christians looked nothing like Jesus.) So, maybe Gandhi lacked a bit of grace for a certain group of people like I sometimes do, but my point is none of us are perfect. Our opinions aren’t perfect, our actions aren’t perfect.

If we would all just learn to be who we were created to be and look more like the goodness of Jesus, we would realize that our friends are pretty awesome, our neighbors are pretty awesome, and even our enemies are pretty awesome (when we stop seeking to be against them and try to reach a place of loving understanding).

We would realize things like: there is more than enough food, water, and money on the planet for everyone to live comfortably if we shared equally.

We would realize things like: both someone who has done wrong and the victim of the wrong doing are both people struggling through life with so many unknown circumstances involved that all we can do is extend love and grace instead of judgement and justice. Justice has been around since the first civilization in Mesopotamia and not much has changed yet. Love and Grace has changed a whole lot of things (again, Jesus, MLK Jr. Gandhi, etc.)

This blog is a bit long and jumbled, but it’s raw, and real, straight from my heart, and it is truth. Opinions seek truth, action reveals truth. Jesus is the truth.

Stop trying to give the world your opinion, and give it your life instead.