I love to be right.

By “right” I don’t necessarily mean “actually right.” By “right” I mean, I like to be in a position where my opinion holds weight, where it’s accepted as the prevailing wind of thought. Where people are running with my ideas, where lives are being changed, when stuff is shifting and moving because of the way I express what I believe. Of course, being “actually right” is pretty sweet too, because it means on that issue, I’m closer to living life the way it’s meant to be lived.

On the other hand, I love to be wrong.

By wrong, I mean “actually wrong.” I love to find out I’ve missed something. And not just some little thing. I actually want to discover I’ve been blind to a whole way of thinking, a truth that changes my filter in revolutionary ways. A series of truths that I’ve overlooked? Even better. Because every truth I pick up brings me closer to seeing things the way they really are and living life the way it’s meant to be lived.

True, the initial revelation comes like a slap to the face or, in more extreme cases, a blow to the head. My running hypothesis now stands bleeding, rendered unstable by the new insight. A whole lot of work is now necessary as I dissect that aspect of my world view with fresh eyes, discarding newly deceased rabbit trails and embracing a new frontier of ideas. At times new insights reduce my theories to rubble, like Humpty Dumpty who can’t seem to put himself together again. But that just means for a season, I have to be content with holding the remaining pieces loosely, trusting the Spirit of God to stitch me back together in his time.

We humans put things into boxes. It’s what we do. We have a box labelled “prayer,” and many others, too—”time management”, “marriage”, “tithing”, “God.” This isn’t ideal, but it’s unavoidable. The box represents what we currently know. So the boxes are different sizes, different shapes.

Knowing this about myself, I ask:

– What have I been wrong about lately? If I haven’t been wrong about anything, I’m probably not growing much.

– Where does my theory fall short? Is there a hole in my thinking somewhere, a lazy spot I’m not admitting is lazy?

– Which of my boxes have felt too full lately, as if there are truths that beg for a larger box than I’m currently using to frame my thoughts?

– Am I willing to trade my boxes in for bigger ones, to do the work of unpacking and repacking in the new framework?

For me, it’s about prayer and healing. My box used to be bigger than it is today. Over time I traded in what I knew for a smaller box, one with firmer edges. Now it’s not working for me anymore. I’ve pulled out a bigger box, one offered by God through his word, and I’m in the middle of transferring stuff over—throwing some outdated ideas, collecting some new ones.

What about you?