There are many conversations that I am either a part of or overhear, and I cringe at the number of things that people (including myself) say without fully knowing all sides or putting many assumptions into what they say. What if instead of us constantly trying to teach, we tried to learn more?
I’ve told the story before, but there was once a time I invited a bunch of guys on a camping trip, and one of them brought a couple of friends. One of these friends seemed to know a lot about a lot. It didn’t matter what the subject matter was, he knew about it and was ready to give you his thoughts on it.
As the camping trip progressed, something I realized about this guy was that he never asked questions. Not once in the entire time that we were on the camping trip did he ask one question (that I know about. He could have asked someone else while I wasn’t around). It made me wonder how this man who seemingly knew so many things attained this knowledge? Was it all through research and looking things up on the internet?
If he wasn’t ever asking questions, how could he go so confidently into saying some of the things he said. It seemed impossible that he actually had that amount of knowledge.
There is an advantage to being confident about what you believe, and if you truly believe it, you should be willing to sacrifice for it. However, too often, people are confident about things that they should not be confident about, and they cave on the things that should be most important of all.
Instead of always seeking to debate our opinion, what if we approached every conversation with questioning instead? Not believing everything people said, but asking questions about everything they said.