A few weeks ago we were privileged to have George Mitrovich preach at our church. What a wonderful man! I usually schedule guest preachers for when I'll be out of town, but this scheduling didn't coincide with a time for me to get away. I was definitely blessed to hear his words. He preached 2 morning services, taught Sunday School, gave a lecture on James Arminius in the afternoon, then preached (a different sermon) at 5:00. He did great each time.
One of the things about George that I really respect is his ability to work with people from across the typical theological and political divides. Over the course of the day I heard countless stories about all sorts of people, many famous and a few that were not. What stood out most to me was not any of the stories, but rather a phrase that I heard over and over again. Almost every time George spoke about a person that he had met he would begin describing the person by saying, "He was a wonderful man" or "She is a great woman."
I've met a lot of people in my life, but I don't think I ever start describing someone by saying they are "wonderful" or "great". I start by describing what they do or what they look like. Maybe I'll eventually get around to saying they're great, if I actually think they are. I'm pretty sure that I describe my perceived negatives of someone at least as often as their positives. I'm as likely to talk about how I disagree with a person or differ from a person than I am how we are similar or what issues we agree on. I haven't even been aware of this until I heard George keep talking about how many wonderful people he's met in his life.
I imagine that if I start by thinking of the positives about a person, I will probably treat them more civilly. After all, there's no reason to think I'm any more wonderful than the next person who walks into my office.
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