Father…in these times when there is so much discord in people’s lives…issues which, simple on the surface, acquire nuances that make coming to clear cut decisions seemingly not possible if what we want is an absolute, unquestionable right on one side and wrong on the other.
We pull away and apart from the business, we go to a quiet time in our mind, to a different time, maybe long ago when we were young, to an older person in our lives who was steady and seemed to have no questions but always knew what to do…and how in that place and with that person life was not complicated… was a simpler time. There is comfort Father, in the remembrance. We think how nice it would be if we could have that person around and be in the spirit of those past times with them…even for a few moments… to be able to escape what seems like at times, the complications of the present and a sense that there are no solutions that result in peace between people who are in conflict.
Everyone thinks he is right and the other is wrong and someone is going to have to give in, in order to maintain fellowship.
Father…what’s up with that? That’s not the way it’s supposed to be.
Who of us is so perfect in our understanding, so in possession of undeniably true and accurate information… and truly equipped with infallible truths that we have interpreted absolutely correctly from Your Word… in our own minds… that we can look at someone else and say “I am absolutely right… and you are absolutely wrong” no matter which side of the table one sits on?
Where there is opposition, where is the self examination?
Where there is opposition where is unbiased consideration of another’s concerns?
Where is grace in either camp for the imperfection of all people and a willingness to protect and preserve a fellowship in which truth and good outweigh ?seeming unresolvable?... positions?
Who of us Father, will be able to stand before You and be able to claim we never mistook the heart or mind of another, we never failed to know and act in Your will?
Where is the faith we claim…that You will work all things to good…even when it doesn’t seem possible…for those who are truly living according to Your purposes…those on both sides of a dispute?
We know Father…there is an absolute right and an absolute wrong and we have to be on the right side of those.
Grant us discernment and the leading of Your Spirit to know those things so that we can always be unified… for we are not any of us perfect.
And in the case where we have differences and choices not so clear…with genuine unity in mind, may we work our way through them.
May our struggles not lead to judgmentalism, to assumptions regarding one’s knowledgableness… another’s character… to arguementativeness… to anger that turns people away from each other… especially in a spirit of claimed love and forgiveness…but it really isn’t so.
May it be our effort always in disagreement to see the other as loved by You and seek their glory, contend for them and not against them.
Father… may Your hand be in this for none of it is possible for us in our own wisdom and strength.
It’s essential Father… we be humble… truly humble, regarding evaluation of our own selves, that we do not think more of ourselves than we should.
Enable us to be so.
There is no going back to a simpler time, if those times really were simpler when we were there, and to people who, the thought of now, gives us comfort.
But may we be people now for others, those people were for us then, and may our relationships with others today be remembered when we are gone in comforting and loving remembrances… by Your grace… people who knew the Way, seemed always to know what to do… were trustworthy… and with whom life was simple and life was a joy.
In Yeshua’s name we pray.
Amen.
