Do you check your facts?
It's amazing to me how in a hurry we can be to form an opinion. Maybe the fast food media driven world we live in has conditioned us to be shallow thinkers.
It's easy to read a soundbite that sounds right, accept it as truth, and then react.
I remember once I saw a special on a priest who was accused of inappropriate actions with a teenage boy. The first half of the hour-long special you were convinced he was guilty. Then, during the second half, they showed the other side of the story, including how his accuser hated the priest for his popularity with the congregation. I saw that and realized just how important it is to get all the facts before forming an opinion.
Yet even after learning that lesson, many years ago, I still find myself falling into the habit of blindly following something I hear simply because it sounds right. I can always tell the times that I do this, because when I am asked to defend my opinion, I come up short.
Reading Acts 17 today, we see Paul preaching to a group of people who did not accept the message of Christ right away.
"Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men." Acts 17:11-12 (NIV)
To blindly accept is easy, but to take the time to examine the facts, even from the lips of Paul, takes time and work.
When you hear something, how quickly do you accept is as true?
Are you a "Berean"?
