We’ve all argued till we’ve been blue in the face with people, who, even though we make our arguments clear as crystal, and concise as we possibly can, simply cannot see the moon that is hanging in the heavens above their head, or feel the grass that they tread upon everyday, or grasp the simple sense of the truth we’re speaking — if you took them to a big, red barn, and pointed to the barn, they still would not see it. Yes, this unfortunate type of individual does walk upon the earth. And you know who they are in your life. And, oftentimes, the most exasperating part is that these people are fellow Christians.
The power for changing these individuals lies not in argument. Argument is a potent tool, when it is used by our Lord as such. But the cure lies in continued prayer for these individuals, and their blindness… the illumination of the Holy Spirit is the only illumination that will free them from their darkness and ignorance.
Here’s a poem to illustrate my meaning — spectacles and wise lectures aside, some people will still insist that travelers only tell monstrous lies!:
Suppose (when thought is warm, and fancy flows,
What will not argument sometimes suppose?)
An isle possess’d by creatures of our kind,
Endued with reason, yet by nature blind.
Let Supposition lend her aid once more,
And land some grave optician on the shore:
He claps his lens, if haply they may see,
Close to the part where vision ought to be;
But finds that, though his tubes assist the sight,
They cannot give it, or make darkness light.
He reads wise lectures, and describes aloud
A sense they know not, to the wondering crowd;
He talks of light, and the prismatic hues,
As men of depth in erudition use;
But all he gains for his harangue is — Well —
What monstrous lies some travelers will tell!
— William Cowper, The Poetical Works
Coram Deo~