I’ve been noticing something lately, and I’m guessing I’m not alone in my observation. It seems to me that negativity and vitriolic communication is becoming increasingly common in the world at large (and particularly the social media section). I have friends on all sides of nearly every debate or hot topic that fills my newsfeed these days… President Trump, COVID-19 restrictions/guidelines (masks, lockdowns, etc.), elections/politics, race relations, vaccines, worship gatherings, protests, and on and on it goes.

Many (if not most) of my friends express a love and commitment for God, and yet they are so far apart in their perspective of what it looks like to follow Him in this increasingly polarized climate. Whether right or wrong (and I am not here to judge/defend either “side” of any of the issues listed above), so much of the communication seems aimed at “calling out” whatever behavior is seen as ungodly or not Christ-like in the opposing group.

Recently, this observation has me thinking of Gideon in the Bible (Judges 6). If the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon in the spirit of many people today, He might well have shown up and declared, “Coward! You’re hiding in a winepress instead of standing up for your people and your God. What a loser. You need to be better than this. You’re being selfish and don’t care about anyone but yourself. Be better!”

Maybe some of those statements would have been (or at least seemed to be) true. Instead, we read in verse 12, “The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!’” The angel immediately engaged in an entirely different sort of “calling out” than what I am seeing most often today. He called out who Gideon truly was, the truth that wasn’t obvious in his actions in that moment. Instead of berating and “calling out” the current actions or cowardice, the angel encouraged and called out the man God had created Gideon to be. He spoke of a deeper truth than what was evident in Gideon’s momentary actions.

So, how might this idea affect our communication with one another? I don’t know about you, but having someone constantly tell me all I’m doing wrong and trying to change my behavior through guilt and shame rarely brings about an actual change. If I’m honest, in my fallen nature, it sometimes simply raises my defenses and solidifies my resolve to remain unchanged.

However, when someone calls out the deeper reality of who God has called me to be, when I am told the things I’m doing right and invited/challenged to move that direction, I want to be better than I am now. I want to respond and move forward. I am encouraged to believe that I can be more than I am in this current moment. Perhaps I’m hiding in a figurative winepress at the moment, and if beat over the head with my cowardice, I will likely dig a trench further down and believe a coward is all I am. But if I’m shown that I can be more than what is seen in this moment, I may become a mighty warrior who fights on behalf of others and stands for God in the face of those who oppose Him.

So, how can we call one another further up and further in (to quote C.S. Lewis)? How can we communicate our resolve on issues in a way that invites others to join us and “calls out” deeper truths of the people God has made us to be?

Yes, stand for truth and Biblical justice and love and unity in this crazy time in our world. But let’s remember that standing for truth as we see it does not mean trampling those with a different perspective (because we ALL have limited vision and understanding and a lot more to learn). Let’s call out the best in each other instead of constantly “calling out” what we see as wrong with one another.

As a dear friend likes to say (ALL the time), we become what we behold. Let’s start seeing and calling out the best (God’s image) in one another, and hopefully as we focus on what we see of GOD in each other, we will become more like Him ourselves.