Why I love being right

There are few greater sensations than being right. Whether it's successfully predicting what's going to happen in a situation or winning a quiz or, the ultimate, winning an argument, being right is a fantastic experience and I love it.

However, I suddenly realise that this might be a problem. Proverbs 12v15 reads...

'The way of the fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.'

So there may be a problem with my being right. It may be that actually I'm not right at all I'm just so stupid that I think I'm right.

You see it's possible to be right because you are right. 2+2=4 is right and I know this because I have sufficient information to know.

However, when I was growing up I was convinced that Chesney Hawks 'I am the one and only' was the best song ever recorded as I blasted it out from my bedroom. Now here I thought I was right but actually I was a fool. I just didn't have enough information. I didn't know enough songs and so despite being right in my own eyes the whole world could see I was a fool.

So here's the challenge for me? Stop thinking I'm right all the time, stop valuing thinking/proving that I am right and start listening to people. You see what this proverb encourages us to do is keep an open mind and keep questioning those things which we think are right.

People tend to be very bad at doing this. Christian tend to sit happily on their theology confident they are right and not allowing it to be challenged. You may be right but you also may be a fool without the information necessary to make you realise you are a fool. So go to church an be challenged, read books and be challenged, talk to people and be challenged. People who aren't Christians though can be just as bad. They think they are right and know so much but never expose them to things which challenge those ideas. You might be right or you just might not have enough information to realise you are wrong. I mean why not venture into a church? Why not talk to a Christian? Why not read a gospel? Why not get more information and allow what you know to be right to be challenged?

'The way of the fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.'