Wednesday, 8/12/15
Jesus tells you that if your brother sins against you, then
you should talk the matter over with him. And, if that doesn’t work, you should
get witnesses. If that still doesn’t work, Jesus says you should report your
brother to the church.
Now, I don’t feel safe in disagreeing with Jesus, but still,
I would like to offer another alternative. Before talking any of those steps, I
think you should stretch your imagination until you can bring yourself to see
why your brother might be acting in his disagreeable way.
There is a philosophical axiom that states that people
always do what seems right to them at the time. It’s like gravity. You hold a
pencil out at arm’s length, and you let it go. Every time it will fall to the
floor. It’s the same when you must do something with your decision-making
process. You hold the decision at arm’s length, and if you let it go; it will come bang down on
what at the time seems good to you.
There are two people I have been annoyed with recently. One
was a boy who shows off by holding his hands up high when he is praying in
church. The other annoying person is a woman who talks too loud. I couldn’t
imagine why they were behaving that way, but rather than letting my dislike
simmer, I asked about it.
I found that
the boy’s friends had all embraced atheism, and he was doing all he could to
keep in touch with God. And, as for the noisy woman, I head that she has a deaf
husband, for whom she has had to talk loud.
With
understanding, it helps to take the word apart. You can get over disliking
anyone if you can learn what is standing under the behavior to which you
object.
1 comment:
It is great teaching!
Father, I wish you healthy and happy in the heat of summer.
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