When it comes to disagreement, we are in perpetual fight-or-flight mode. Rather than respond with a posture of compassion and connection, we are encouraged to “resist” others. Either we engage in fruitless arguments with people who refuse to see things our way or we retreat to our echo chambers where everyone agrees with us. But the real resistance, the kind that helps us grow, is learning to love others–especially those who disagree with us.
If you’re tired of seeing your real-life and online communities in turmoil and you long to be an agent of peace, understanding, and reconciliation, it’s time to join a new kind of resistance movement–one that pushes us toward personal transformation. Ashley Abercrombie is on the show sharing about her book Love Is the Resistance. Join us to develop confidence to communicate and connect with others, stop avoiding necessary tension, and resolve your internal and external conflicts.
Quotes:
“I perfected wearing a mask growing up. I perfected performing and pretending throughout my life.”
“I need to own the fact that I’m broken and I can’t fix it. When I accepted my brokenness it helped me to accept other people’s brokenness.”
“Justice can be a trigger word for some people. But if we push past our politics and what we see on the news and look at what the Bible says, God talks about the poor, the impoverished, the foreigner, the fatherless, the widow, the orphan, over 300 times. Justice and righteousness are synonymous. They go hand-in-hand.”
“There needs to be an awakening. We need to rethink the way we relate.”
“We need to stop labeling and categorizing each other.”
“We need to return to thoughtfulness and figure out why we do what we do, why we believe what we believe, and why we are the way we are because it will help us grow in love instead of judgment.”
“We have to normalize conflict. We are not going to agree on everything. You grow through tension and resistance.”
“What will matter most at the end of your life is your relationships.”
“The Christ I know commands us to love even our enemy. This ruthless pursuit of being right all the time is rooted in pride. He saved His harshest critics for religious people.”
“You cannot exhaust His grace and his mercy. The more we resist His love the less we look like Him.”
“Sometimes things get worse before they get better.”
“Is the wisdom I’m offering peaceable?”
“Ask questions. Questions help us locate ourselves.”
“Our inner world helps determine our external world.”
“God is not a taskmaster. I am a co-laborer with Christ.”
“I have to be aware of the pressure to be the parent I want to be rather than the parent I feel like the world is telling me to be.”
“No one has had a fully wonderful experience and no one has had a fully terrible experience.”
“Sometimes we have to unlearn the things we were taught about love.”
“My hope for the church at large is a better witness and a better freedom for us as individuals.”
This week’s love offering is to be kind. “You can be in conflict and mad and still be kind.”
Organization mentioned:
Treasures
Podcast:
Why tho? Tiffany Bluhm
Connect with Ashley:
https://www.ashabercrombie.org
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