I think what people refer to in their desire to “go deep” is the hit they get from hearing something they’ve never heard before; a new idea, a new paradigm, a new angle. We often get this tingly sense when that happens. We want more tingles... We operate with the assumption that giving people new ideas changes people. It doesn’t. Believing ideas is, in fact, a way of not having to change in any significant way, especially if you can argue about them. Ideas become defenses.
Believing ideas is, in fact, a way of not having to change in any significant way... Bam! I so do this. And the plain fact is that I need help to change. I'm addicted to the buzz of new ideas about faith. Not that new ideas are bad (I think it's vital that some people within the body of Christ have new ideas about faith!) but it's bad to be addicted to them.
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"We operate with the assumption that giving people new ideas changes people. It doesn’t." and "Believing ideas is, in fact, a way of not having to change in any significant way".
ReplyDeleteSo do we just take his word for it that this assumption is wrong? I find it very difficult to see how you can have an idea and NOT have it change you in some way. The bigger the idea, the more it will change you. Just because you don't have an instant change doesn't mean you're not changing slowly over the years. For the most part, ideas result in long-term changes, not sudden paradigm-shifting changes (although that happens as well).
What we are now is a combination of the accumulation of our assimilating new ideas. If you're different now than you were 5 or 10 years ago, then it will be the ideas you've incorporated that has changed you.
Small incremental changes in thinking over long periods of time are as valid as a big change done within a day. Perhaps my definition of "idea" is different than the quote.
-dan
Hmm, I wish I shared your optimistic view, Dan, but I certainly don't see it much in my own life. Some folks are much more addicted to ideas than others, though, I'm sure. Maybe most people are just far more mature about handling ideas than I am, not using them as a shield against changing their life...
ReplyDeleteI know what you're saying about ideas changing us over the course of our life, but I think it's our relationships with others that change us much more. Who are we allowing to influence us, who are we trying to emulate?
I agree it would be our relationships with others that change us more than just ideas. But many of the ideas we adopt we encounter as a result of those relationships.
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