Opinionators

All around the world we have 'opinionators'.
They are maybe a precursor to the fictional terminators of the movie franchise fame?
Without robot and AI enhanced skills, they show the same dogged determination to attack what they are programmed to attack.

The most important thing to an opinionator is their opinion.
And you better watch out if your opinion doesn't match their opinion!
Their strategy for dealing with an opinion or philosophical position different to them is simple...
Don't like someones idea. Attack.
Don't agree with someones faith. Attack.
Can't relate to someone else's values. Attack.

Everyone can have an opinion.
But having an opinion doesn’t make you any more right about an issue or a subject.
Opinions are not always fact.
Opinions can change at any time if something else convinces it otherwise.

Listen, opinions and the dealing with them is as old as humanity itself.
Every generation has had issues pertaining to differences of opinion.
I don't want to focus on it today, but the dam that held the extreme reactions at bay for a number of generations has been removed. Manners, respect, decorum are nearly extinct in many quarters, so the flood has arrived.
So what can you and I do to operate the best in a world of rampant opinionators?

Jesus asked his friend, his disciples a strange question one day.
"Who do people say I am?"
Essentially he was eliciting a response to all the opinions swelling around about Him at the time for a very pointed reason.
One by one they fire off their answers back to Jesus.
"Some say John the Baptist".
"Others say Elijah". 
"And still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets".
If you have read this before, did you notice they all referred to Jesus as a dead guy?
They said He was like any number of dead people. Weird!
It is just my opinion, but I can't help wonder whether they knew something was special about Jesus but didn't want to acknowledge it fully? All they felt comfortable doing was forming opinions on Him based on the history they understand around a bunch of dead guys.

Jesus then does something truly important and key to this issue. He turns to Peter, looks him right in the eye and directs His question on a truly personal level.
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter is being most pointedly asked by Jesus to say who he thinks Jesus is. To forget about the opinionators and their biased thoughts on who He is.

Today I want to encourage you to put some blinkers on as it were to the world of raging and swirling opinions. They have become a polluted ocean. A cesspit of anger. Devoid of hope.
If you want to know Jesus, want to understand the Kingdom, get connected to the source of it all.
What you think and understand on a personal level is what God is most interested in.
Build your own relationship with God.
Do you own research.
Go back to the source of life and I believe you grow far beyond opinion.

Something to think about...