5 December 2016

1 Thessalonians 4:9 – 10

Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, beloved, to do so more and more.

“Love the brothers and sisters” Love all the people in the church??  But some of us are hard to love, in fact, as hard to love as those non-church members that live next to me.

I enjoyed an empty lot next door where the owner let me park my boat and my friends’ cars when they visited. That only lasted 33 years and then the owner died and the lot was sold to a” Northerner” who commenced to build a home. As a not-so-good Christian, I let the inconvenience aggravate me for the whole year it took to build.  The house blocked part of my view, the noise went on and on, the blowing dust and dirt got into our house, I didn’t like the design and frankly, I didn’t like the guy.

Almost six months ago my temper came to a head and I lashed out at the neighbor with a meanness that I seldom feel or express. So there, he deserved it. What I said was how I felt about what had been going on but, the way I said it began to bother me.

Rationalizing is a fine art that I practice often, but in spite of that I continued to be bothered by the way I had acted. So, for months I went back and forth between “he deserved it” and “I need to apologize for the way I spoke him”.  My disappointment in myself got to the point that it bothered me nearly every day. In retrospect, I believe this is a result of the Holy Spirit trying to get my attention.

That ended last week. “I’m sorry for the way I spoke to you” was all it took to put my mind and Spirit at rest and remove the guilt I felt for treating him the way I had. Now I have to work on the “LOVE THY NEIGHBOR” thing.

Why is it so hard to put our pride aside and treat others with the love that Christ expects from us?