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Nor will you find it by always separating yourself from those who irritate you. You can only fire so many preachers before you find yourself very much without a choice. You can keep hiring new preachers, of course, but sooner or later they will irritate you -- and then what?
Perhaps the better course might be to let the irritation go. Preachers rarely mean it personally when they do that, and a touch of easy forgiveness every day is even better than an apple. Forgiveness, just like the apple, is for the one who holds it. The apple doesn't benefit. Neither does the one being forgiven.
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Bitterness, envy, strife, discord - all signs of a tortured
soul. The pain that courses through the
heart and mind often finds its way out of the only avenue of escape - the
lips. When venom drips and the harshness
is obvious to everyone, it is evident that the lips that have such caustic
flavor are coming from an extremely tortured spirit.
A difference of opinion becomes a battle and a simple
comment creates a wall and war is declared.
And we are Christians. And we are at war. The battle that rages does not belong to us. It is a Spiritual battle. It is not between flesh and blood. Yet we embrace the battle and arm ourselves with weapons so vile the Devil himself is giggling gleefully.
What to do when one sees a battle raging between two
Christians is often a dilemma that few of us are equipped to face and none of
us want to face, especially if we are not one of the combatants. The problem is seldom that either is
completely wrong. Unless there is a doctrinal
difference then there can be no "compromise" on one party's part,
particularly if you believe in the inerrant nature of the WORD OF GOD.
So, what does one do when a congregation is pulled into a
territorial dispute over something as simple as who decides what goes into a
bulletin or as critical as to whether or not women should be Deacons? What do you do when the actual issue has long
since departed and the issue is no longer the issue, it is the struggle that
now matters? What does a bystander do
with this drama? I might add unnecessary
drama.
When tension descends upon a church and even visitors notice
it, there is no way I will invite someone to the service without having grave
misgivings. I'd almost rather not invite
anyone.
When there are a few who, rather than confront an issue and
work it out or at least work on it, would prefer to refuse to speak to one
another and leave the room rather than be in the same room with the other,
would prefer to act as a child and simply vilify the opposition, how do we
handle that?