This week’s Harmony Project essay from fellow alumnus Tom Van Wyen opens with a jolt. He takes one of the most beautiful passages in the New Testament — “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable… think about such things” (Philippians 4:8) — and inverts it into its dark mirror: “Whatever is false, unethical, wrong, immoral, and ugly… let your mind dwell on these things.” His unsettling suggestion: it is the inversion that increasingly reflects our cultural habit.

Tom imagines Euodia and Syntyche — the two Philippian women Paul urged to “be of the same mind in the Lord” — standing on opposite ends of today’s political spectrum, with Paul writing not to the Philippians but to the loudest voices on both sides. His plea would not be that they agree on every detail, but that they be of the same mind in something higher than the dispute itself. Because when nothing stands above the argument, the argument becomes everything

The path back begins with what we choose to dwell on — and, by extension, how we choose to see one another. Not through louder arguments, but through better attention. Read Tom’s this full essay, including his two “Questions to Consider,” in the PDF linked below.nnn

Read the full essay (PDF)