Real Hope: Difficult ConversationsSample

Ground Rules

I’m not someone who’s interested in verbally combative arguments; however, I’m willing to have respectfully kind conversations about difficult topics. There are strong and differing views on so many areas that are important for us all to be thinking about and engaging in. Questions about the environment, security, sexuality, identity, technology, the definition of life, the boundaries of individual choice, the place of faith, describing what is sacred, and the place of ethics.

We all need places to have conversations where those involved are more interested in exploring the issue, rather than starting with a polarised stance. I enter the complex ideas of a difficult topic by first determining to uphold the human dignity of the people I’m speaking with and asking them to offer me the same. Jesus had an extraordinary capacity to see into the hearts and lives of the people He met. I revere Jesus by asking God to gift me with a similar capacity to hear beyond what words offer and see into another person’s life.

I’ll always have an answer in the person of Jesus to the question of why I am able to be so hopeful in life. However, I do not have all the answers to the many issues of life. I need to read widely and listen closely to be well informed. My lived experience also informs my perspective. To value others with respect I must be willing to hear their lived experience and understand their perspective.

Being willing to wade into potentially difficult conversations with these ground rules has allowed for some rich discussions that have continued beyond the first conversation. I have been blessed with meaningful ongoing friendships that have started in this place.

Written by KATH HENRY