For a little while now, I've been trying to up my game when it comes…
Sometimes Dealing With People is Hard
It’s been a rough couple of days the past few days dealing with people. The kind of days that make you seriously consider crawling into a teeny, tiny hole and never poking your head out again. You’ve had those days, right?
I’ve been doing a lot of reminding myself that God called us to be in community with one another. Even when it’s hard. Even when you feel unappreciated (or, worse, beaten up) for doing the things that need to be done. Even when you know you’ve bent over as far backward to accommodate someone and try to help them fill a role as is humanly possible only to find out that they dislike you and are walking away from that role with no advance warning because of it. Even when someone you thought was your friend has a stance that is so completely antithetical to yours on an issue that isn’t one you can simply sweep under the rug and ignore and you realize that the fundamental structure of your relationship has to change because of it.
Even in all those cases, we’re called to love one another and live in community. And it’s hard. And frustrating. And it brings you back to your knees, crying out to God asking why relationships can’t be easier. And in the quiet, after I’m done letting loose the wailing of my heart, I’m reminded that humanity has done so much worse and so much more–over and over and over–to God and yet, he doesn’t give up on us. He hasn’t given up on me. And I am forever grateful.
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You’re completely right that we’ve done so much worse. Besides helping you identify with Christ in His suffering (I think Paul said something about that…), it also strengthens your dependence on Him alone. He is molding you for something bigger/harder down the road, so be thankful for today’s struggles. It means He has great plans for you!
God has been teaching me about grace lately, and I know I still have so much to learn. One thing I’m finally starting to grasp, though, is that God wants grace to be the instinct of our heart and not just the words we say after we’ve thought things through. When it comes to people and relationships – especially those we let close to us – grace is often the polar oppose of our initial instinct when we’re hurt. Yet it’s what God calls us to. It’s only in that place where we begin to fully understand how much grace God has poured out over us that we can hope to become those people whose hearts’ first instinct – when stricken and hurt – is grace.