Those are two words that hold so much power. They hold power over our emotions, within relationships. They've started wars, ended marriages and brought heartache to so many.
They're words that hurt, but they are also true. You're wrong.
Now before you begin to think these words are aimed at you, they are. Not because of anything you've said to me. These are words I'm writing before ever reading a single response from this blog. I'm writing them because they're words that I've held onto and struggled with myself, but they need to be said.
You're wrong.
I'm wrong.
There are so many times in our lives where we are wrong. We are wrong with how we judge others, with how we only look at the lives and choices of others through the lens of our experience.
Maybe you're tempted to post a reply with a great quote from another much more intelligent author than me. Go head, you're still wrong. Do you have a great Bible verse to share to show me the error of my ways? Awesome! You're still wrong. So am I.
All too often we spend more time justifying our decisions to hurt others, to dismiss them, to oversimplify situations by our rush to judgments and trauma inflicting words. You don't agree with someone's choices? Do you think they need to just see things the way you do? Are you frustrated by their simple mindedness or stubbornness? I get it. But, we're still wrong.
I feel all of these things too. I do these things too. I'm wrong too.
Maybe you read some of my words and think, I need him to see it my way. You're wrong, because you're not me. Maybe you see a friend or family member make a choice and you think you have the answer to their hurts and struggles. You're wrong, you're not them.
I'm not saying don't offer to help. I'm not saying you don't have the ability to be there for someone and help them in their journey. I'm saying your heart behind it, the idea that you know what's right for them, that's what's wrong.
So how can we be right? The problem with that question is that our goal is to be right.
Right isn't a goal for our world or our relationships. Right draws a line in the sand that none of us can cross. Right ignores the differences in our journeys and the planks in our own eyes. Being right isn't about us being right, it's about others being wrong.
So instead of right, can we work on being known? Can we work on being known by others and knowing them? Let's work on going on a journey with each other. You'll be surprised by the journey. You'll discover along the way that what you thought in the beginning, was wrong. You'll discover they were wrong too. You'll discover there wasn't a right available in either of your minds or hearts.
The right had to be discovered, in the journey, together.
Be known my friends. Be known and get to know.
You're wrong. I'm wrong. They're wrong.
But, together we're better.