Who is right and Who is wrong?

The lyrics from two songs are in my head right now, one, by Dave Mason, says “there ain’t no good guy, there ain’t no bad guy, there’s only you and me and we just disagree”,speaking of friends that have been separated for a while and find that they no longer agree on many things, good friends becoming “former friends.” The other song, by Joni Mitchell, says “But now old friends are acting strange, they shake their heads, they say I’ve changed. Something’s lost but something’s gained in living every day. I’ve looked at life from both sides now, from win and lose, and still somehow it’s life’s illusions I recall. I really don’t know life at all.”

Both of these songs find friends at odds, looking at the same things in a different way, One agrees to disagree, the other is just disillusioned with life, period.

I know both of those emotions up close and personal.

Sometimes people take a different path, one that you find you cannotwalk down so you go your separate ways. It doesn’t take away from the good times you used to have, it just means there are no more good times to be had with them.

A lot of things you can just let go, like whether you prefer Chinese or Mexican take-out, but things that make a difference in your life, or the way you live it, can’t be compromised. One thing I hate is to be around someone who takes for granted that I agree with something outrageous without knowing it from my own lips! Makes me think of some of those “fighting” talk shows where someone addresses the audience with “YOU don’t know me!” The man who wrote the greater part of the New Testament, Paul, and Peter, the disciple that recognized Jesus as the Son of God, had a major disagreement concerning Kosher vs. non-Kosher! Paul had an argument with Barnabas over young John Mark, who got home sick! Yes, these “holy” men had major conflicts, we won’t even talk about the one concerning circumcision!

Point: you can disagree on minor things and still have communion. Denominational differences? Stupid! What difference does what you wear or how you sing make? Will it damn your poor soul to hell? No!

What matters? Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”I can love my family the way I love myself, it gets a little harder with some others, so I look to God for strength knowing, Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

As long as you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, that He died on a cross for our sins, was buried and raised again in three days to live eternally with Father God and one day return in the clouds, as He went away, to take us home with Him, then. there ain’t no good guys, there ain’t no bad guys, there’s only you and me and we just disagree!

I can tell you from experience that I am looking at life from both sides now for I have been young and now I am, well, a little older!