“In essentials unity, in nonessentials liberty, and in all things, charity.” *
This rings true. The thought that we should “not sweat the small stuff” (the “nonessentials) is timeless. The rub, of course, comes in who does the defining and how each defines “essentials” (the big stuff) and “nonessentials” (the small stuff). A good rule of thumb, but still somewhat subjective, would seem to be that if I can’t immediately and reasonably classify it as “essential” then it isn’t. But as I think on it, it occurs to me that the task of deciding what is “essential” and “nonessential” is a daunting one, one in which I am bound to get it wrong often because of the limited range of my brain and experiences. That is, of course, the reason why the “in all things, charity” part is the critical one.
*The book I read this quote in attributes it to Pope John Paul XX111, but looking into it a bit more, there is an entire scholarly debate as to its origin. That debate includes attribution to almost every significant religious leader, including, in addition to Popes, St. Augustine and John Wesley. It seems most of the heavy scholarly work attributes the quote to Rupertus Meldenius and dates it back to the 1600s. But a good quote is a good quote, no matter the source.
It occurs to me... 