- When somebody we know gets caught breaking the law, how often do we distance ourselves from them (at least until things get 'back to normal')?
- When somebody makes a very serious public mistake and embarrasses or harms us or our reputation, how often do people try to stay away from them because "it just hurts too much"?
- When someone cheats on their spouse, how often do we pick sides and how often are we on the "side" of the one who messed up?
- When you are counting on someone to follow through on a promise to do something and they don't, how often do we give them the silent treatment and swear to never ask them again.
- When we tell someone a secret and they share it, how often do we start censoring ourselves around them?
The point is, we all have a tendency for self-preservation and our own comfort and that's completely natural. But when people let us down or don't live up to our expectations of them, we also have an opportunity - an opportunity to show love, grace and model Christ. And not just an opportunity. For those who are followers of Christ, we have a responsibility to restore them and help relieve the burden. We should never take away or diminish the consequences, but we should never kick our friends to the curb for messing up either. If everyone did that, I wouldn't have any friends, and neither would you.
I'd encourage you to listen to the message I shared this week....it's only by God's grace I was able to make it through it. You can listen HERE. You can listen to any part of the whole series HERE.
3 comments:
I know that when we lived in Utah and we had some problems I separated from Dean. And the people from our church never called, visited, checked in or talked to us. The only one that kept pursuing us was our pastor. I have to say, I was hurt and I know Dean was hurt also. You go to church to find a family, to find a oneness and when one of us is hurting then isn't it our opportunity to show love and compassion to them? Our pastor followed Galations 6 out. I have to say he was persistant and never gave up. His love and attention is what encouraged me to seek counseling and to come back to my relationship with Christ. Sometimes it's not easy to show love when someone is sinning or hurting others, but it's our responsibility as the family of Christ to carry each others burdens.
I know I don't want to go to a church that isn't real. Where we can't honestly share what's going on in our lives. I don't want to ask someone "How are you?" only to get a "great". And I also don't want to go to a church where someone shares what's going on and I can't listen, give them a shoulder to cry on, offer help, make a call, or send a card.
We need to be a real church in a REAL HURTING WORLD.
This helped me. I've been struggling with something that someone didn't do right for my wedding. I got married 10 days ago to a wonderful man and the entire day was a beautiful gift from God....yet I've been sulking because my hairdresser didn't understand what I wanted and I hate how my hair turned out. I've even been contemplating not going to her anymore for my regular haircut/color (which she is awesome at) because I feel so much disappointment toward her. Your blog helped me realize that I need to surrender this to God so that I can continue to have a relationship with this girl, who's not a believer.
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