Fearless Faith

Finding the middle road can be tough. Getting up on it, and staying on it, can be tough. Sliding off due to a high crown in the road is not fun, and breaking down is never a highlight, especially when we are needing to be elsewhere (which is most of the time).

Despite its challenges, the middle road, or middle ground, is an important locale to meet others. It is a place, a pathway, a route to somewhere or something that just might constitute a sacred encounter with the Divine if we are so inclined. It need not be wrapped in mystical fog and incantations as some Christians are wont to do. In fact, it can appear quite unremarkable and ordinary. It is when we look back that we appreciate what transpires when we are willing to empty our being and let something good happen despite ourselves.

There will always be people who believe themselves in sole custody of truth. We must always ask who is writing the narrative in such a way as to come to a particular point. What is the vantage point and context under which our stories are connected? If we are unwilling to accept any but our own, then it does us little good (and perhaps much damage) to be in conversation with one another. When we achieve the opposite, it is because we have begun to listen, to empathize, and to become a participatory community that values and represents safety, sacredness and sanctuary for everyone.

True work begins when middle ground is acknowledged by all, a place where questions are as important as answers. From which direction do people arrive? What assumptions do we place on them? What are our personal biases? Are we willing to look to our own complicities as well?

Middle ground can also generate unequal outcomes. We should always inquire what it is that people truly want from middle ground encounters with others. Verifying self? Vilifying others? Meeting fears head on? It is messy and confusing at times, but if we can wade through with intentionality and grace, something good inevitably happens. A long-standing observation in alternate dispute resolution is that the success of mediation is mostly dependent on the parties’ willingness to be there and their determinedness to find answers. Is life not similar?

There is a plethora of companies these days begging consumers to enlist their help in providing free solar installations. Sound a little too good to be true? Questions help unmask the reality. Who can afford to give away solar installations? No one. Getting beyond the hype and salesmanship, the best question to ask is who stands to gain the most? It is likely a person in the middle who has figured out how to make themselves essential to whatever process is being pitched. To be sure, most are not making money selling solar panels. To no one’s surprise, what is generating millions of dollars is financing, encouraging people to spend and overspend on their solar installations.

Seek middle ground, common ground, sacred ground. Be wise to the hucksters and manipulators of this age, and continue to find points of light that bring blessings each day.