Open enough?

I was initially quite apprehensive penning this entry as it may slightly resemble the previous but somehow felt the need to do so. Early this tuesday morning , I received an overseas call from a friend who is away on a work trip. The intention of it was for a chit-chat sort of conversation and at the same time, appease her boredom.

She related her experience of having to follow a fellow colleague for a church service and had concluded that she didn’t understand why devotees to that faith ‘waste their time’ every weekend, spending time in church. I could help raising a brow not because I was offended in anyway, but I felt that I was once again caught in a predicament. Being a Roman Catholic myself , I felt obliged to share and explain my faith to the best of my knowledge but was held back having known the values that she hold and not being readily open to accept theological concepts that challenge her beliefs, through past encounters with her. I was also told that even though her friend had tried to explain the significance of each part of the service, she turned a deaf ear simply because she wasn’t interested.

Very often, we tend to ‘hear what we want to hear’ and accept things only if they coincide with the foundation of our values or beliefs, hence depriving ourselves of any possible goodness that may come from the virtue of being open. God gave us one of the greatest gifts- the option to choose. He could have pre-programmed all of us (like computers)to believe in him if he had wanted to but he did not. Instead, he gave us the ability to make a valid choice through the understanding that can only be derived from having an open heart, and the privilege to choose the path we wish to follow. Are we doing enough to understand? Have we sealed the doors to our hardened hearts? How can we bring ourselves to pass judgement on things we do not understand?