²²⁷ For the hearts of these people
have grown callous,
their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
otherwise they might see with their eyes
and hear with their ears,
understand with their heart
and turn,
and I would heal them. (Acts 28:27 CSB)

I am going to go ahead and admit something right here and now. I am stubborn. I know, I know, you can’t believe it can you? Oh, well maybe you can….

Yea, my mother used to say I had a stubborn streak running through me that was a mile wide. However, everything about stubbornness is not bad. It makes one tenacious. I do not give up easily. That same trait makes me very focused upon results.

However, I suspect God would have other things to say about my stubborn streak.

Stubbornness can make you callous, hard of hearing and short sighted. It can keep you from growth that is needed. Thus, these days I try to curb my stubborn nature and temper it with a strong dose of humility and an open acceptance of new things. This does not mean I compromise, just that I seek to listen twice as much as I speak. To accept things at face value.

Much like in Paul’s time, the world has become stubborn and callous. It has denied truth and is treating good as bad and bad as good. It has substituted a lie for the truth in so many ways that have nothing to do with religion or spirituality. Society is simply wanting to live our own truth, which is far from God.

If we want to heal we have to set aside our stubborn nature. We have to learn to be humble and reach out. To seek actual truth and not just look to our own designs and desires. We have to start living differently.