From Matthew 10, vs. 11-16:
11"Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. 12As you enter the home, give it your greeting. 13If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. 14If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. 15I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. 16I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.
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We are called to ‘fight the good fight’ – to spread the news, to love each other.
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Sometimes, though, we need to let things go. To let some people go. For, although we’d dearly love to take them and sometimes, shake them, there are those who simply will not listen, not even when, or maybe especially when, they are quite simply, wrong.
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Oh, I get so frustrated, when people who claim to be Christian turn out to be the most judgemental of all. They make statements about others, criticize others, and judge others. They take another’s words, and twist them, and try to push forward the idea that they are innocent victims of another’s attack, when the opposite is, in fact, the truth.
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Let us be humble, and let us take care. We will not always agree on certain points, nor will necessarily like everyone we come across. But we are called to love each other. Even when a friend or an acquaintance refuses to listen or to see the truth. Sometimes, we must say good-bye to someone who has been in our lives. For the sake of all involved, we must move on, and move onto different friends, and allow the seeds of God’s word to take hold in His time, and not ours.
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Recently, after making a simple comment, I was judged as un-Christian, and despite my efforts to gently point out that this was untrue, my words were twisted, and I was slammed as, basically, a horrid person. The comments were unfair, but, sometimes, we just have to take it. I had my say, but, with someone who has judged you as one thing and who refuses to listen, what can you do?
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I see this as a great concern, over the Internet, when well-meaning Christians judge others, whom they have never even met, so harshly. My son came across a comparison chart today. Did you know who are the most likely people to bag Christianity? Those on the Internet. This percentage was much, much higher than those who are gay, or who are gay activists, and those who are non-religious at all. Simply being on the Internet means you are very likely, at some stage, to send a blow to someone who is a Christian.
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So, please be careful. Whenever we leave a comment that judges someone or puts someone else down, remember that on the other end of the ‘line’ is a real, live person. Someone with a heart, someone who has feelings. The Internet can be a wonderful source of encouragement and inspiration, but can also be a place where our confidence is shot to pieces.
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For me, I’m staying off of message boards for a while; actually, I’m reducing my entire time in front of the computer, and getting back to spending time with the people in my life who are here, right here, physically in front of me. That’s not to say I don’t have any cyber-friends out there who really are my friends – I do! But I need time to distance myself from cyber bullies who will chuck out derogatory comments in a flash, just because ‘they can’.
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Let us be as be as ‘shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves’, let us love one another, and yes, when need be, let us ‘shake the dust off our feet’ if some will not listen, and move on .
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Linda
Linda