How do we react when someone is unkind?
My pastor commented on Sunday, that sometimes when she looks out into the congregation and smiles, some of us actually smile back at her. I really took her words to heart because when I sing in the choir and survey the congregation, not everyone smiles. But, some people always smile and so I look for those people.
My hope has always been that when I sing, it comes across as a testimony of sorts or sometimes a prayer, and when I make a noise for God, I try to make it a joyful one. When people smile back at me, I feel like they are reflecting Jesus back at me. It’s a wonderful, soul filling phenomenon.
After the sermon today, I really began to reflect on how I can do a better job at reflecting Jesus back to a world that really needs Him right now. I feel like I do a decent job of returning a smile when someone gives me a smile. I’m always polite when people are polite to me.
But, how well do I do when they are rude? Human nature tells us to give back what we are given and that we shouldn’t take anything other than kindness and respect off of anybody. We certainly don’t want to be perceived as weak in any way. We are a nation of winners.
Yet, Jesus teaches a different path, a more difficult one to be sure, but He’s more concerned with our spiritual nature than our human nature. He knows that the spiritual lasts forever. The physical does not.
“Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Luke 6:31 Those are red letter words, directly from Jesus.
So we are called not to give back what we are given, but to reflect back what we would like to have been given. That’s a tall order. When people are unkind, we are called to return their actions with kindness. When people are rude, we are called to return their rudeness with politeness.
How do we want to be treated? That’s how we are called to treat others.
As difficult as that can be, sometimes we find that when we do that, the person we are encountering has nowhere to go. Something changes inside them and a breakthrough happens and sometimes it doesn’t. Thankfully we have a helper in the Holy Spirit who provides us with the fruits of perseverance and patience.
A sermon reminded me to remember who we are and who we represent. Perhaps you needed reminding too.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂