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something I wrote a long time ago:
LERK'S RULE OF YARDSTICKS
Preface: Everyone has some yardstick by which they personally measure the big questions, like faith or non-faith, God or no god, the right way and the wrong way...etc. For the sake of clarity, lets assign everyone a different color yardstick, with varying forms of measurement for each.
1. Your green yardstick cannot be used to judge your neighbor. He already has an orange yardstick. He will not accept your measurement of him.
2. Your green yardstick cannot be used to judge your neighbor's orange yardstick, because he has already accepted the orange yardstick's standard of measurement as true, or else he would not be using it.
3. Your green yardstick cannot be used to pummel your neighbor or break his orange yardstick. He would just make another orange yardstick.
4. You cannot proclaim your green yardstick is the only true measurement, even if it is, because your orange neighbor will simply ignore you or hate you for trying to dislodge his orange yardstick.
All these things lead to disharmony with your orange neighbor. And if it was your goal to change his orange yardstick to green, that will not happen.
However...
1. If you accept your orange neighbor's orange yardstick, even if you disagree with him, you may have gained a friend, though not a convert.
2. If you frame all your discussions on measurement with relativity....by saying things like "It was 3 green inches long, or on the orange yardstick, 4 inches" you may have achieved synthesis of two colors, arriving at a third, or at least are speaking in a language that can be understood by your orange neighbor. Even if he does not accept your green yardstick, he at least can understand your point.
3. If you borrow your orange neighbor's yardstick to measure something, you might better understand him. And, he will be more likely in return to borrow your green yardstick to better understand you.
Conclusion:
The Purpose of personal yardsticks is to measure only ourselves. To see if we measure up to our own standards, and if not, to make adjustments to do so. We cannot forcibly make another use our yardsticks, however they may be impressed with how well we measure up to our own standards and ask to borrow ours.
To each of us, our own yardstick is our own truth. There is nothing that says We or our neighbor cannot readjust either ourselves or our yardsticks with new information or enlightenment, but those adjustments can only be made to ourselves and from within ourselves. When we accept THIS truth, we can be more happy with our own yardsticks, and others can be more happy with theirs.
Because ultimately, whichever yardstick is THE yardstick, doesn't matter. We will all make our own standards. When the time comes to calibrate our yardsticks with the great yardstick in the sky, the Lord is not likely going to come to us and say, "hey, your orange neighbor, what do you think of his yardstick?" He is more likely to say "hey, well done with your green yardstick, lets see how you measured up, shall we?"
The bottom line is, if indeed, as I believe, there is a God, spending time worrying about our neighbor's orange yardstick is time wasted when we could have been trying harder to measure up to our own. Better to get your own house in order than to have run around like a chicken with your head cut off trying to force other people to get their houses in order. They won't thank you and you won't help them and you won't even get to put in your own two cents when judgement day comes. God does not need advisors or informants, so why fritter away doing the equivalent of that with the amazingly short time we have?
my two cents.
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