There was a period of my life during which I was on a mission. This mission was to help people understand the life changing concepts of what it actually means to understand the word irony. But I’m not talking about the meaning of irony today. What I’m talking about today is something deeply ironic.

There was another period of my life during which I was on another mission. This mission was to help people become Mormons. During this period I talked a lot to people belonging to other faiths. I then spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to discredit their religions in order to make them doubt their belief system enough to let my religion get a foot in the door. I’m not saying that proselytizing is a bad thing. But I am saying that is a bad way to go about it. And this brings me to the deep irony: it seems that of all conversations in the world, religious ones seem to have a hard time not ending in argument. This is wrong. This is ironic. Doesn’t any credible religion teach kindness and understanding?

About 3/4 of the way through my mission, I realized this and began approaching my proselyting a little differently. A little more conversation, a little less confrontation. More patience and less urgency.

I didn’t really post great numbers by the end of my mission (and anybody will tell you that’s not really what it’s about anyway), but the way I went about it was more in keeping with the whole friggin message I was trying to convey in the first place.