As a church planting wife, I meet tons of people. Some are awesome and others take a little more grace and patience to be around! Let's be honest, we all come across people that really annoy us. They act in ways that get under our skin. They make us say things like, "Seriously?" and run in the opposite direction.
It's stinking hot here and for some reason Dawson won't wear shorts. We keep asking him why and he says things like, "I forgot" or "I'm cold" and on and on. One day I told him to put some shorts on and he put jeans on instead. I sat him down and asked him why he keeps wearing pants. I finally figured it out...he has a small wart on his knee. It's so small that you wouldn't even notice, but for him it's an embarrassment. We were getting so annoyed with him, when all it took was a short conversation to get behind the mystery of the pants!
Vince's mentor, Dean Trune, was in town this weekend. He did some teaching for our launch team that was life-changing for me and others. One of the things he talked about was this concept of digging deeper.
He said that if someone offends us we tend to avoid them. We don't invite them to our homes, we pray that we don't see them in public, etc. But what if we look at the situation differently? What if we see that person as having a need in his or her life that God wants us to fill? Wow...that really convicted me.
So what if that annoying girl really just needs someone to listen to her? What if that arrogant guy in your office is having marriage trouble or is really depressed? How can you help? What has God done in your life that makes you the perfect person to help him or her? How can you meet a need in that person's life?
So the next time you are tempted to run ask God to make it obvious to you how you can help, and ask Him to help you to see the big picture behind the person's behavior. I bet you'll be happy that you stayed.
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