I wish I got along with everyone and, for the most part, I do. I have great relationships with family, clients, and neighbors. But there are those few who, like ‘flies in the ointment,’ ruin my otherwise flawless compatibility record. These detractors prove I do not qualify for the “World’s Most Congenial Guy” award.
Oddly many of them, like me, are professing believers and active church goers. I don’t get it. When I am around these people I receive no ‘warm fuzzies,’ only ‘cold pricklies.’ Why won’t Jesus wipe away all differences and help us achieve the unity between believers He promised and commanded? Am I doing something wrong, or are they the bad guys? Or, is there an explanation that, for the moment, eludes me?
Only one thing consistently gives me the warm fuzzy feeling; and that is “the original message” of the gospel of Jesus Christ. When I “let it sink into my life” I feel better, more confident of His calling and love. When I press into Jesus and the truths of the Bible, I experience the personal benefits of living “deeply in both the Son and the Father.” To “live deeply in what I was taught” when I first met the Lord over fifty years ago brings an inner joy and peace that cannot be shaken, (1st John 2.24, 27d “The Message”).
Living deeply for Christ is the only response that makes sense of the cold prickly people I know.
