Yesterday I took Mom to a doctors appointment in Tulsa and as we were driving back after a luscious meal at Zoe’s Kitchen (our new fav) we were talking about the tensions and contentions plaguing our country of late.  She was quick to quote Isaiah 1:18.  If only that scripture would be applied and utilized in the manner it was intended.

Whatever happened to the old “round table discussions?”  Oh right, sitting at a round table gives the discussers a good aim at the others across from them and a direct contact opportunity to their right and left, hmmm.  Okay, maybe that’s not the best approach to “working” things out.  It seems there are no productive discussions or debates among the politically minded folk in our great nation.  At the end of the day it’s “I’m right and you’re wrong;” seems there is no neutral territory to meet in the middle.

First of all I would like to mention the all too frequent pitfall that I have noticed to accompany most reasoning discussions–lack of willingness to actually listen to the opposition’s dialog and content of their message.  Programs that bring a small group together to discuss the week’s happenings (usually journalists, news hosts and analysts) is a long time approach to civil political discussions, but oftentimes as one member at the table is making their point you can see the rest are just waiting for a break in the chatter so they can begin their own with a slight elevation in decibels.  After awhile it’s not that hard to predict what each person’s verbal return is going to contain.

Without reasoning, the focus of attention will remain on the conflicts and not on peace and workable solutions.  While a large population gives their attention to the controversies there are still folks out there that want to help the needy of the recent disasters and those much less fortunate than themselves and also to find some common ground with their fellow American citizens.

With God all things are possible, so if He saw fit to include the instruction of reasoning in the Isaiah passage it must be possible for people to do it.   Amen!