"I...urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Ephesians 4:1-3
hey guys,
As I've shared with some of you, work has been really busy lately, furthermore, one of my closest coworkers just left the company to go back to school. Because of this, I found myself paired up with a much older coworker who was not only significantly slower than his younger predecessor, but also made numerous mistakes that often required us to start over. This quickly wore out my tiny store of patience and while i was never obviously rude, my frustrations showed thru in how i spoke and reacted towards him. My "advice" had a sharp, critical edge to them; I was quick to take over his portions of the work, at first to demonstrate how it's done, but later on really to spitefully rub in the fact that i was faster than him. To my shame, this continued until one day, in a sad voice, he apologized for being so slow... That's when it hit me, how prideful and unloving i've been - how far short I fell from what God has called me to!
So i repented and apologized. I tried to be more patient in my instructions and more graceful in the face of errors. As a happy bonus, im pleased to say my coworker is now probably even faster than me; but that's beside the point. Even if his performance did not improve, it does not change my calling to love those around me and maintain unity in all my circles through bonds of peace.
This same lesson applies to how we relate to one another in the body of Christ. It starts with humility. Without humility, our pride tells us that when brothers/sisters fail us, they deserve no mercy from us. we become blinded to our own shortcomings and think ourselves wiser, holier, or more mature than we ought. Humility keeps us from that wicked hippocracy and teaches us patience; and patience allows us to extend grace to those who fail/offend us, in the same way God extends mercy to us who are perennial sinners. In this way, we are able to maintain unity in the body of Christ filled w/ imperfect people.
Encouragement for the week: Humility -> Patience -> Forbearance -> Peace
Have a happy wednesday!
Edward
adorable kids in an evil and cruel psychological experiment >.<
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWW1vpz1ybo&feature=related
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