The Blessing of Being Wrong
It is a joyous occasion to authentically (re)discover that one has been wrong. It can also be surprising, discomforting, and even traumatic. Nonetheless, the genuine realization that something is in fact something else, or nothing at all, is a profound blessing. Especially when such things are known about oneself. Oftentimes, the realization is a form of surrender to the fact that we know less about what we thought that we knew.
It seems strange, then, that we also desire to be right about things. For example, the world of blogging is full of braggarts like me who insist on being right all the time. We often write the most when we are telling our readers—under no uncertain terms, like the ones I am speaking in today—what is wrong about this thing or that person. How is it then that in the midst of this deranged desire to be right, discovering our faults is such a blessing? Is it simply preventative, simply a case where we can know not to err this way again?
I want to think that the blessing of discovering that I have been wrong all along is related to the desire to be right, but it is not just a preventive service to that prideful desire. To admit that we know less than we thought we did opens up space for the knowledge of God. We approach knowing God when we admit that we do not know. This is beyond epistemic knowing and beyond rhetorical argumentation. It is beyond proof or even justice.
When we learn that things are less than they once seemed to be, when the world appears more mysterious, when we admit that we are lost, when we do all these kinds of things, God becomes possible.
This is the paradoxical blessing of being wrong: In the realization that things are not what we were once sure that they were, we make space for the re-enchantment of the world through the mystery of the unknown God.
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It can also be surprising, discomforting, and even traumatic.
Now, now Sam. You’ve been married long enough to not be surprised to be found wrong. ;-)
Sam, Was the prodigal son wrong or right when he left the father and spent his inheritance or was the son who stayed wrong or right in staying within the limits of the known?
I appreciate the blogging medium precisely because it opens one’s thoughts and arguments up to immediate testing and criticism and, therefore, revision. Of course, I much prefer to be the one testing and criticizing! ;-)
All human beings have a desire to know the truth
So we talk about it and we test our ideas against the ideas of others in order to know more of it. Sometimes we’re right and sometimes we’re wrong.
Sam, have you read James Alison’s book The Joy of Being Wrong? I picked it up last month and it’s on my short list.
Ronald, they both seem quite wrong, but the prodigal had the blessing of seeing it so.
Iafrate: I have not. I don’t read enough religious literature in general but someday when I start I will ask you for a bibliography since between you and Henry you seem to have read everything there is out there…
People are making such a good case for the “blessing” of being wrong that I hope to experience it someday for myself!
Actually, over on Vox Nova once, someone contradicted something I had said, and I realized he was quite correct. I thought the only appropriate response was just to concede, without any excuses or explanations, so I said something like, “You are completely right, and I was wrong.” And he responded, “Why the sarcasm?”