Yesterday the smoke, from the
many forest fires, was so thick we couldn’t see seven mile, about two miles away
and Cherry Heights was just a blur – half a mile away. I went outside for a couple of minutes to
change the feeders and ended up with chest pains from the smoke causing my
asthma to act up. I don’t remember that
happening before around here; I have had that problem in the Portland and Eugene
area.
Today the smoke has cleared a
mite, and the visibility is better, but I still can’t spend anytime
outside. I finally understand what a
hazardous warning on air quality means.
I am staying inside where numerous air filters are helping me breath.
Even Carla, who is impervious to
pollen and pollution, found that she couldn’t go outside and work.
Teresa is coming over to give us
a hand on a couple of INSIDE projects.
Carla and I are just not as limber as we used to be.
1 Corinthians 6:5-6 I speak to your
shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall
be able to judge between his brethren?
6 But brother goeth to law
with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
These verses speak to actually
one Christian suing another in a court of law – rather than going to a trusted
brother to arbitrate the issue. When it
is over trivial matters it damages not only each Christian, but the Church.
But as I read this another
thought came to mind. How often do we
complain to non-Christians about the acts of another Christian – or even another
person? How often do we complain to
co-workers about how another Christian has treated us; about our spouse’s
conduct?
What does that do for our
testimony to that non-Christian? What
are we telling him by our complaints? If
on the one hand we tell him about the great love and mercy of our God and then
turn around and complain about the conduct of a fellow Christian, what is he to
think? Can he trust our testimony of the
love of God when our actions prove otherwise?
It is so easy to get into that,
‘he hurt me and now I must retaliate – or at least complain’ mode. We don’t like their style of dress, so we
make fun of them. We don’t like their
method of speaking, so we make fun of them.
We talk about them to others,
instead of loving them as they are and allowing them to be themselves. If we can help them, we should, but often it
is just a personal ‘taste’ that should have no bearing on our relationship with
them.
We heard another Christian had
commented about us and we took offense and started talking about what we do not
like about that person – to someone else.
Yes there are times we need to
‘let off some steam’ but we owe it to the person we are in conflict with to talk
to them about that conflict – after first making sure that we, ourselves, have
not caused it. If that be the case we need to ask
forgiveness.
Many times disagreements are
from misunderstandings, not a deliberate act against another.
I don’t know how many times I
would listen to the complaint of a citizen about the actions of one of my
officers/deputies, only to find they did not understand the reasoning behind
decisions. Some of it was they did not
know the law and how it was to be applied, other times they did not know how
important a full investigation was before the final decision was to be made by
the officer.
They assume there was
maleficence on the part of the officer, or a deliberate act of overlooking the
complainant’s, complaint. They assumed
the worse and felt they had been mistreated.
We were often able to correct a
misconception and the citizen went away with a better understanding.
However, I also would hear
complaints about actions of our office that came from others who did not come to
us. They just started complaining to
others and the message got to us a long time afterwards – and it may have been a
valid complaint, but many times, once again, it was misinterpreted by the
citizen or they didn’t understand the reasoning behind the decisions.
It is sad, that for some reason
people will complain about someone’s actions to everyone except the person they
have a disagreement with – and it doesn’t matter what positions these people
have, they just don’t come forward, even when given the opportunity. It used to drive me nuts to hear all the
complaints by Sheriffs’ about a certain agency – but when we had a regular
meeting with the head of that agency these same Sheriffs kept their mouths
shut.
This should never happen with
Christians. We should take great care to
deal with a brother in a forthright manner.
If we cannot resolve the issue between us, we should ask that the
discussion be taken to a mutually respected Christian whose wisdom we both
admire and ask them to mediate.
Mathew 18:15-16 Moreover if thy
brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and
him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy
brother.
16 But if he will not hear
thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three
witnesses every word may be established.
Sometimes it is necessary to
have another person make a decision in disputed circumstances – but Christians
should never go to a non-Christian to get that resolved – especially if it
involves trivial matters. Is there a
limit as to what that entails, as far as seriousness of the dispute if it cannot
be resolved within the Church – I would think so, but I also think before we go
that distance we want to be sure we have been so grievously wronged the dispute
must be litigated, and we have tried everything else to rectify the problem.
There are so many pitfalls a
Christian must step around or over and we must always be alert for those snares
so we do not create a road block for other Christians; nor do we damage our
testimony to those that watch how we act and attribute improper action to our
relationship with God. Complaining about
a fellow Christian is one of those pitfalls we must avoid.
Later, Art :-)
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