Choked by a Shirt-Sleeve Cuff

Have you ever seen a man who only does bicep curls, and only with his right arm? He exercises one muscle on one side. While he may be able to show off that no short-sleeve shirt cuff can match his flex, it’s not really helpful, certainly not balanced.

Usually you need some compound movements, and strengthening some overlapping muscles.

It is a sign of maturity to hold on to more than one thing at a time. There are at least four overlapping metaphorical muscle groups for this kind of strength.

Love good things. Maybe this is coffee, maybe tea. Maybe it’s salty or sweet. Maybe it’s sprinting or long distance. Maybe it’s a Bible reading plan of six verses a day, or six chapters. All are yours, and a mature person has more than surface-level cares.

Recognize that there are multiple good things to love. This starts to stretch some people. We need to grow as our categories grow, or, we need more categories than one-size-fits-all.

Acknowledge that you can love something different and more intensely than someone else. Now it becomes inter-personal. It’s not just what books belong in the library, but it’s the other patrons who never pick a book from your preferred list. You think, “What is he doing?” He might be wanting to ask you the same question.

Enjoy (and promote) what you love without polarizing another person who loves a different thing more intensely than you. We tend to get defensive about the things we care more about to the persons we care more about, who tend to be closer. So we tend to have more conflict about different good things with friends, not enemies. Enemies aren’t loving good things in the first place.

One relevant example among us: How should fathers best take responsibility to educate their children? To homeschool or private school?

What is better? What is right? Should we avoid the discussion to avoid possible conflict? Or can we recognize that there are multiple good options, and that we can love and promote what we think is great, without turning friends who choose a different good option into enemies?

Of course this relates to our responsibility to drawe one waye (Philippians 2:2).