There’s Always Two Sides to Every Story
Today’s inspiration stems from something we have all heard at least once, if not many more times, in our lives. As my teachers in school growing up, friends, mentors, but most often, my parents would often say to me, “there are always two sides to every story.” This thought reminded me of a time in Solomon’s life where he had to wait to hear both sides of a difficult story before making what was deemed a very wise judgement. Let’s take a look at the story:
1 Kings 3:16-28 CEV
One day two women came to King Solomon, and one of them said: Your Majesty, this woman and I live in the same house. Not long ago my baby was born at home, and three days later her baby was born. Nobody else was there with us. One night while we were all asleep, she rolled over on her baby, and he died. Then while I was still asleep, she got up and took my son out of my bed. She put him in her bed, then she put her dead baby next to me. In the morning when I got up to feed my son, I saw that he was dead. But when I looked at him in the light, I knew he wasn’t my son. “No!” the other woman shouted. “He was your son. My baby is alive!” “The dead baby is yours,” the first woman yelled. “Mine is alive!” They argued back and forth in front of Solomon, until finally he said, “Both of you say this live baby is yours. Someone bring me a sword.” A sword was brought, and Solomon ordered, “Cut the baby in half! That way each of you can have part of him.” “Please don’t kill my son,” the baby’s mother screamed. “Your Majesty, I love him very much, but give him to her. Just don’t kill him.” The other woman shouted, “Go ahead and cut him in half. Then neither of us will have the baby.” Solomon said, “Don’t kill the baby.” Then he pointed to the first woman, “She is his real mother. Give the baby to her.” Everyone in Israel was amazed when they heard how Solomon had made his decision. They realized that God had given him wisdom to judge fairly.
In this short story, we see a microcosm of many of the problems we face today, especially when faced with choosing one side/belief or another. Oftentimes, we are far too quick in forming our conclusion, whether verbally or subconsciously, of a specific matter around only one side or point of view of a story. This made me wonder how many times, we as believers, prejudge the story, situation or circumstance, before having the full story. How many times have we tried to write a conclusion before the body of the story is written? We see that had Solomon solely heard the viewpoint of one side, he would only have had a 50-50 chance at judging the case correctly. He would have restricted himself and been forced to assume that the one with the more passionate plea, or who came to him first, or yelled louder, or whatever the case may be, was the mother of the child. However, due to his patience and willingness to hear both sides of the story, God gave him the wisdom to judge the case wisely and accurately.
My encouragement to all of us is to stop trying to judge the story of our lives, situations, circumstances, etc. from a one-sided perspective. The Bible affirms to us that God is both the Author and the Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2); therefore, only He can accurately write the conclusions of our individual stories! Like with Solomon, some of the situations that we face and will face in life will be too difficult and intricate to navigate from just one point of view. Saints, we can no longer afford to get consumed in only our perspectives of what is happening in our lives. Rather, let’s endeavor to look at our stories and our lives also from the lens and perspective of God. Then and only then, will we have the two sides to our wonderfully crafted stories!
