From the Pulpit: ‘I am glad God placed you in my life’
Greetings to each and every one of you from God our loving heavenly Father and our living Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I hope and pray that this article finds you all well now that we are heading into the official change of seasons from summer to fall.
People that know me know that there are times when I am not overly serious about what is happening in life. I tend to be a bit sarcastic and have a sense of humor about many things in life. One of my favorite phrases is, “That was fun.” Some people have told me they want to help me redefine that word because what I see as fun, many other people see as frustrating.
Because I do not take life serious at times, I have another favorite phrase around my house. That phrase is: “I am mad.” There are many moments when I will look at my wife and say, “I am mad. I am steaming mad.” She will ask why, and I will give her some zany answer like, “I am mad because Ella – my 21-year-old daughter in Tennessee – has not called me seven times today,” or, “Caleb – my son– does not miss me enough to call me every day.” Many times, the answers I give to why I am angry are rooted in my imagination or are just reasons to be childish enough to get my wife’s attention.
Over the course of time, I am noticing that this phrase, “I am mad,” is not being used in fun by many people in our society. In fact, I am realizing – and not for the first time – that this phrase has become one of those adages that is being used all the time and all around us. We do not have to look very far to find unhappy people. We have a lot of sadness, anger and madness all around us. There are not too many days that go by that I am not told that someone is mad or angry about something, and most of the time it is bigger than an hourly phone call from a college student.
This is not a good thing. While emotions are healthy and normal for us to have and express, the amount of negativity that we are experiencing is dangerous. It is affecting how we talk. It is affecting how we interact with one another. It is changing relationships, and honestly, it is affecting all of us. Some of the most positive people I know are struggling with how to relate to people because of the fear of making someone upset. This fear causes tension in our lives and in the lives of the people around us.
What can we do to change this? How can we have real relationships with one another once again? First of all, we need to figure out how to move from confrontations to conversations. We need to take the time to ask people why they think or act the ways in which they do instead of instantly judging them for doing or saying certain things. We need to sit down and say, “I want to get to know you better,” instead of saying, “you are wrong, and here is why.”
Along with this, we need to accept people for being who they are instead of expecting them to be just like us. There are times when we have to agree to disagree and just let go of differences instead of trying to change someone else. You think and believe things for a reason, and other people have their thoughts and beliefs based on their reasons. All of these reasons are valid and matter!
This is not easy work to do. It is not easy in this current cultural and societal climate to have these conversations. We have to realize that we do not enter into them alone. Jesus knows this. This is why he promises to be with us in our interactions with others. He says that wherever two or three people are gathered in his name, he is with them. He wants us to build relationships with him and with other people. We can only do this by letting go of our anger and finding ways to have loving interactions with one another again.
The world needs us to model this behavior. There are too many divisions around us. We are the ones being called to model loving discussions and interactions. I would pray that we would be willing to be the people who set this example and work to make a little change in the world to bring the temperature down, so instead of saying, “I am mad,” we can say, “I am glad God placed you in my life.”
Just a thought…
