Recoil

I had another dream last night.

There was a small room, only about 8 x 8 in size.  Suddenly there appeared in the middle of the room an old black cannon.  The word "conflict" was heard and then I was flooded with several thoughts. It is difficult to formulate them in a blog but the gist is that when we get caught up in an ongoing dispute with another person we stop listening to them and only care about getting our point across.  Conversely, they stop listening to us and only care about getting their point across.  Demands set in and volleys of attack, put downs, judgements, and criticisms start.   The trouble is, it's not their volley of attack that hurts us, it's our volley of attack that hurts us.  When we send our volley of vindictiveness, or defensiveness, it is like firing off a cannon in a small room - the recoil from our cannon impacts and deafens us.

Maybe this is why Jesus told us to turn the other cheek.

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