Deciding to Deal With It
My uncle died back in 2006. He was a wise man. My dad told me how one of his great bits of advice was that whatever comes your way, you have to learn to deal with it.
Life is going to be unfair. Difficulties are going to come. Deal with it.
I don't mean that in a flippant or trite way. I'm not just saying "you have problems, deal with them already" I'm suggesting that God created our world, and He understands the complex and difficult situations we find ourselves in, and with His help, we can deal with these things so that they don't overwhelm us.
God has equipped us with all we need to deal with the challenges we face. For the next 4 weeks we'll be looking at some of those challenges, beginning with the challenge of dealing with difficult people.
Dealing With People: A Challenge as Old as the Church
People are difficult, aren't they? I remember once reading a Louis L’Amour western, where one of the characters said that whenever there are a few men together, you'll find that some of them just don't see eye to eye. It's just the way it is.
Church is no different! We are a collection of flawed people, and we’ll always face conflict, even in our Christian communities.
How are you doing with the people in your life? Facing some conflict? Struggling with people who see things differently to you? Irritated by people's ways and ideas? Frustrated that nobody sees things quite the way you do?
You're not alone in feeling that way. I think everybody feels that way to some extent. All through the Bible, God's people have struggled with this. There's always been tension between people, even godly people. But I believe God can help us to deal with it, if we're open to what He says. I believe God desires for us to deal with it - to learn to love and live in peace with each other.
Are You Willing to Deal With It?
Here's the question: how open are you to dealing with people and their strange ways? How willing are you to bear with others, especially as a follower of Jesus?
We have to want to deal with it! Some people enjoy resenting others. They enjoy holding grudges. They feed off of negativity and they never deal with it. That's not the Jesus way, is it? The Jesus way is to deal with people and love them!
Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus, who were struggling with exactly this, and gave them some words of wisdom. He wrote: "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." (Ephesians 4:2-3) Over the next few days we'll unpack what that looks like in practice. But it starts here - with a willingness to deal with it.
Will you come to God today and ask for His help to deal with the difficult people around you? He’s going to help you to do it, if you’ll come.
People can be so difficult. This week I hope I might help you deal with difficult people, using some wisdom from Ephesians.