Once parties are engaged in a dispute, the humility necessary to resolve it sometimes becomes nearly impossible to exercise. Unilaterally adopting a posture of humility can feel just too vulnerable when one has already been hurt. What is the point of weakening my own position so that I can be further disadvantaged? Urging the other party to adopt a position of humility is unlikely to be successful because, to the other, if feels like just another attempt to exercise dominance. Hence the stand off.
A third party mediator can be very helpful in moving the parties toward humility when they seem unable to get there themselves. A party can better respond to such a call if it comes from outside. It then feels like cooperation, not concession. The mediator can provide some measure of protection to assure that acts of humility will not be used against them, and there can be considerable reassurance in knowing that the mediator is also calling the other party to the humility that the party sees the other to so desperately need.
Max, I appreciate your comments. I certainly agree: A third party mediator can be a very way to bridge the gap between vulnerability that stalls a dispute and humility that settles a dispute. It is a very biblical approach. However, I must take issue with your statement, "What is the point of weakening my own position so that I can be further disadvantaged?" That concern makes sense humanly, strategically and rationally, but not biblically. Jesus took us to that place when he said, "If your enemy strikes you on one cheek turn to him the other also." Humanly... impossible. Strategically... suicide. Rationally... unthinkable. What is the point, you ask? Trusting Jesus.
2 comments:
Once parties are engaged in a dispute, the humility necessary to resolve it sometimes becomes nearly impossible to exercise. Unilaterally adopting a posture of humility can feel just too vulnerable when one has already been hurt. What is the point of weakening my own position so that I can be further disadvantaged? Urging the other party to adopt a position of humility is unlikely to be successful because, to the other, if feels like just another attempt to exercise dominance. Hence the stand off.
A third party mediator can be very helpful in moving the parties toward humility when they seem unable to get there themselves. A party can better respond to such a call if it comes from outside. It then feels like cooperation, not concession. The mediator can provide some measure of protection to assure that acts of humility will not be used against them, and there can be considerable reassurance in knowing that the mediator is also calling the other party to the humility that the party sees the other to so desperately need.
Max, I appreciate your comments. I certainly agree: A third party mediator can be a very way to bridge the gap between vulnerability that stalls a dispute and humility that settles a dispute. It is a very biblical approach.
However, I must take issue with your statement, "What is the point of weakening my own position so that I can be further disadvantaged?" That concern makes sense humanly, strategically and rationally, but not biblically. Jesus took us to that place when he said, "If your enemy strikes you on one cheek turn to him the other also." Humanly... impossible. Strategically... suicide. Rationally... unthinkable. What is the point, you ask? Trusting Jesus.
Post a Comment