THE SCENE: Almost 90, rain and then humid
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
THA-THANG:
F3 Iron Pax Challenge, Week 4
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
8 men, no FNGs
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Romans 14:13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
Colassians 4:6 Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
As HIMs we desire to greet the day with energy, do good for our community, and help or brothers and sisters. What happens, however, when the people we try to help are not receptive to the assistance we are trying to provide. What do we do when we put in a great deal of effort to help another and we find them taking no real steps to help themselves. When they turn down our advice with “yes buts”? When they answer your attempts at optimism with pessimism” When their basis stance toward your attempt at community with them is “People ain’t no damn good”?
We as HIMs must learn to have patience with individuals who are so difficult to help – and, frankly, sometimes difficult to like. Jesus said this: “Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right side of the cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5: 39). I don’t think that what Jesus was talking about here was to allow those who assault us to merely do so. I believe that in this statement Jesus was talking about the approach we must take to people who resist our attempts to love them. Sometimes we feel we are being slapped when we try to assist others. Their resistance, their poor attitudes, their chide remarks can make us angry. Our automatic response, which is certainly understandable, may be “To hell with you!”
But we must stand strong in the storm that hurting people throw at us. It is the work of the devil in them that leads them to such behavior. We must learn to keep loving. That takes the fruits of the spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. We must allow the onslaught and try to understand what, in the individual’s past, leads to their negative stance. And, we can certainly go to our kinder brothers and sisters for advice and encouragement on how to hang in there with such people.
MOLESKIN:
Prayer for Mr. Jinxy who goes tomorrow for heart catheter.