enroute

i read recently 'you don't have to compromise your convictions to be compassionate'. and while i agree with this, it's been puzzling me quite a bit. mostly the word 'convictions'.

i take a 'live and let live' approach to life, which means loving people and demonstrating compassion without imposing my choices on them. i'm pretty sure that i've written before reflecting on the difference between morality and ethics. basically, i feel that morality is one's individual behaviours. and unless i'm asked to help support or provide accountability, i'm not going to butt in. then ethics, on the other hand, is the larger workings of society. as a member of society i have a responsibility to do my part to make life better for others.

anyways, i'm kind of going off topic. this whole word "convictions" has really been stumping me. maybe it's partly because it seems so bizarre that someone would not show compassion because they disagree with x or y. i guess that's because it contradicts the objective of helping make life better for everyone.

i think the weird thing about it is... where do convictions come from? i think culture plays a big part in creating conviction - cultural norms. it's true to say that religion has also played a big part in telling people what their convictions should be. i'm currently reading a book about ireland in 500 A.D. and rome has just decreed that priests, nuns and monks should be celibate and that divorce is not ok. before that priests and nuns often had spouses to help them better engage with the community. so it was the church (not God's writing on their hearts) who told them they should be celibate. it's just interesting to me that many norms we've come to accept as appropriate, were introduced at some point, by someone (intentionally or not).

sometimes external convictions are just as important, if not more important, than our own gut instinct. truth be told, sometimes our internal compass is broken. i know with complete certainty that my natural choices would have taken me in a different direction without the influence of faith and jesus in my life. and i'm very thankful i didn't take that route because i feel that i'm a healthier, happier, more whole person today than i would've been.

so after all this writing, this downloading of thought, has brought me to a rough conclusion. my adaptation of the original quote would be... "don't let what makes your life better, make another person's life worse". or "don't idolize your moral compass so much that you develop contempt for everything else". or perhaps it's just simpliest to say "love God, love others... with no exceptions".

why are the most important things the most difficult to explain?