Can our pursuit of a personal relationship with God make us insensitive to other people? (part I)
I was enjoying an impromptu luncheon with colleagues at the small, southeastern university where I work the other day when one of the scattering of conversations turned to the subject of how we speak to one another and how we respond when our feelings get hurt by the words of others. One professor remarked that she knew she had a very sharp tongue, (a fact all too well known to many of us in the room) but was making real efforts to control what she said.
She shared a recent personal circumstance where she was the recipient of harsh personal criticism from a close, long time friend (you know, one of those loved ones who really know exactly how to push our buttons), but contrary to her usual and natural instincts, she *chose* not to respond to the criticism emotionally and kept her peace. Some of us thought this would have been an instance when use of her verbal skills was in fact warranted, but she thought not.
Now she and the friend are both professing Christians, but seemed to be in quite different worlds when it comes to the expression of that belief. She then told of the subsequent Sunday church meeting (with this same friend) wherein the basic message was "no pain, no gain", based on some scripture she quoted, (that admittedly, I did not catch--maybe Romans 5:3, maybe not) which seemed to validate the appropriateness of her choice. And she praised God and exalted his name because of this. She claimed to be fully engaged in the praise and worship, while her friend seemed totally unaffected--in stark contrast to her ebullient expressions in a very non-sacred setting the day before.
Everyone of us gathered became interested when I asked: "do you really believe that? and do you believe it applies across the board?", referring to the precept of no pain = no progress. I definitely don't believe this applies wholesale to our life experiences and, being relatively new at this Christian thing, I really wanted clarification.
to be continued in part II...
She shared a recent personal circumstance where she was the recipient of harsh personal criticism from a close, long time friend (you know, one of those loved ones who really know exactly how to push our buttons), but contrary to her usual and natural instincts, she *chose* not to respond to the criticism emotionally and kept her peace. Some of us thought this would have been an instance when use of her verbal skills was in fact warranted, but she thought not.
Now she and the friend are both professing Christians, but seemed to be in quite different worlds when it comes to the expression of that belief. She then told of the subsequent Sunday church meeting (with this same friend) wherein the basic message was "no pain, no gain", based on some scripture she quoted, (that admittedly, I did not catch--maybe Romans 5:3, maybe not) which seemed to validate the appropriateness of her choice. And she praised God and exalted his name because of this. She claimed to be fully engaged in the praise and worship, while her friend seemed totally unaffected--in stark contrast to her ebullient expressions in a very non-sacred setting the day before.
Everyone of us gathered became interested when I asked: "do you really believe that? and do you believe it applies across the board?", referring to the precept of no pain = no progress. I definitely don't believe this applies wholesale to our life experiences and, being relatively new at this Christian thing, I really wanted clarification.
to be continued in part II...
posted by Unknown at 10:54 AM
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