Of Disappointment And Daisy’s

Life is strange. There rarely seems to be pure moments. Maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be. It seems as if even when everything is great there is always something that could be better. Even on vacation, why do I fight with my wife? Or doing something that I love, thoughts about past failures enter in and seemingly ruin the purity of it all. On top of that, put in the mix humans and things really get messy. We disappoint each other often. We can so easily go into “protect mode” when around people with whom we are having disagreements. It seems like the longer that we are in a friendship, the greater the potential for conflict. Because of that we intentionally remain superficial, at arms length with many people. The attitude is that the further away I keep you the safer I am. While on the surface that seems logical, it could only be beneficial if the purpose of your life was to be shielded from all conflict and trials. However, as a Christ follower, my calling is to love God and the most practical way that happens is when I love people. I “prove” my God directed love is genuine and not merely theoretical when I love people. Most of the Ten Commandments and half of the new covenant says that I love and follow Jesus by loving people.
My problem is that I want to love people that are the most like me. Not the idiot who cut in front of me, stole my wallet or was mean to my kids. Surely Jesus wasn’t talking about those type of lost souls, was he?
So when people disappoint us we have a dilemma: scream out for our rights, our view point to be heard, our protection, stomping our feet, or we could chose to wave our rights by seeking the best for the one that I am in conflict with. It seems to me that makes sacrifice real and living the gospel - genuine.