This past weekend my husband cleaned out my car, oh God bless him. Because while I realize that there are probably many of you who keep immaculately maintained vehicles with nary a curly French fry in sight, I confess to you right here and now that I struggle in this area. The car cleanliness thing tends to get away from me.
However, the up side is that if you’re ever looking for a Coke-stained notepad, a small piece of a Happy Meal toy or an assortment of gently-worn Starbucks napkins, I can HOOK YOU UP.
You’re welcome.
And here’s even more good news: when my hubby and my little boy cleaned out my car, they discovered one flat-out treasure: my notes from a Living Proof Live in Knoxville in 2005.
Honestly, I can’t remember why the notebook was even in my car – I think I threw it in there a few weeks ago to take to a meeting. Regardless, I was beyond tickled to sit down at my kitchen table yesterday afternoon and read through those notes. I’ll be doggone if I didn’t get me a good word AGAIN – three years after the event.
The focus of that weekend was Loving Well – the idea that we’ll never be able to love others well until we let God love us well. And after a little interweb searching, I found out that the teaching from that conference is available as a weekend retreat in a box, and it’s called – YOU’LL NEVER BELIEVE THIS – Loving Well.
What a crazy coincidence.
I remembered yesterday that what resonated so deeply with me that weekend was how sacrificially we have to love the people in our lives who, for whatever reason, are difficult to love (and for the sake of our discussion, we’re talking about people who are ornery, bitter, manipulative, etc.). Beth used four different passages from Scripture to illustrate how we’re called to love those “testy” people, and here’s what just jumped off the page at me as I re-read my notes yesterday:
“The people who drive us crazy have been assigned to us, positioned for us. They bring out the worst in us because God designed them to bring the worst [in us] up and OUT.”
My tendency sometimes is to try to “escape” difficult people – to avoid them, to push them away, to distance myself from them because I so dislike the feelings they bring out in me. But Beth reminded us that “God pours His perfect love into my imperfect heart,” and our calling is to extend that love to others. Period. 1 John 4:19-21 is pretty clear on this matter: “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
So what about you? How do you handle this issue in your own life? How do you deal with people who are difficult to love? Have you ever experienced restoration in one of those relationships? Do you have any wisdom you’d like to share with the rest of us? Any encouragement you can offer?
Can’t wait to read your comments.