Being right

Being right is way overrated.

My wife, Marti, and I have an imaginary sign we pass back and forth to each other to hold up as needed. The sign simply says, “YOU’RE RIGHT; I’M WRONG.” That we frequently make use of this sign says that we argue a lot and that holding up this sign is the last resort of a wounded warrior. In other words, we’re competitive and we hate to be wrong. We will fight until the bitter end, and only hold up the sign when we get proven wrong or give up.

It’s hard to admit you’re wrong especially when you think you’re right. But sometimes it’s necessary. It’s necessary for the strength of the relationship. This will be hard for some of us to accept, but there’s something more important than being right. It’s the relationship itself. So are we saying that sometimes you will hold the sign up even when you are pretty sure you’re right? Yes. Because we do not know everything, and we realize the relationship is more important than being right. Besides, we don’t have all the information. There’s more than one way to look at the same thing. We could both be right.

We were just reminded yesterday that the women who were first to the tomb of Jesus, believed, but the men doubted. They thought the women were speaking nonsense. Not only that, but everyone who reported being at the tomb had a different account of what they saw. They all had their own perspective. The men should have held up the sign: “YOU WERE RIGHT; WE WERE WRONG.”

I just found out that Marie, Arnold’s wife (Arnold is my 82-year-old invalid friend who just became a Christian after most of his life as a staunch atheist), has tickets to the Angel game tonight she can’t use, and Arnold wants her to give them to George. Turns out George is a former business associate who was a real “jerk” to him. Arnold wants George to come by and pick up the tickets because he knows how much he loves baseball, and wants to see him and tell him he’s been born again. Who’s right? Who’s wrong here? Who cares?

How many things are more important than being right? I can think of lots of things. Being right is way overrated.