Tuesday; March 11

Have you noticed how easy it is to be adversarial today?  Before the era of mass media, to be angry at someone they probably had to do something to you personally to generate ill will.  However, as our ability to reach out to others has increased, so has our propensity to become upset with people we’d never even met.  We might hear a news story about someone or read something they wrote and, if we didn’t like their perspective, we would become adversarial.  Now, with so many outlets and opinions, it easy to stay riled up.  Honestly, we don’t even need to invest time in getting to know someone anymore because the friend of my enemy almost automatically becomes my enemy.  It has become easy to dislike someone just because they think like or even look like someone we don’t like.  We need to be careful because, if we look hard enough, we might be at a odds with everyone!  

I’d like to a ask a couple favors of you.  First, please don’t get mad at me for something that someone else did to you.  Folks, I can be socially clumsy enough on my own, I don’t need to inherit the wrongs others do to you.  Please don’t hold me accountable for your perceived errors of my acquaintances.  Who knows, I might not even think the same way they do on the thing that made you upset with them in first place!   Second, if you find yourself at  odds with me over something I did to you, let’s deal with that personally.  Discussing our differences personally is not only a good way to maintain relationships, it is also biblical.  Jesus taught, “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.” (Matthew 18:15).  Let’s settle our differences personally and privately, the rest of the world doesn’t need to know if we disagree.  

Friendships are hard enough to build and maintain in today’s world.  Even if we can’t agree to disagree, let’s not be disdainful of those who might agree with someone we disagree with.  When we agree to deal with people as individuals, we can increase the number of real friends we have and deepen the relationships we the ones we have.

Think About It! 


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