Wound a Little Tight?
Excerpt from James 5:7-12
“Friends, don't complain about each other. A far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know. The Judge is standing just around the corner.” (The Message)
Reflection by Ron Buford
I made a new friend on the beach in a foreign city. We agreed to meet later at a local restaurant. As we entered, we were stopped by at least three tables of his friends, each wanting to talk. When we finally sat down to eat, we could barely pick up a utensil without someone else coming over to chat.
Exasperated at one point while he was away chatting at other tables, it suddenly hit me! “Could this be what it’s like for others having dinner with me sometimes?”
I couldn’t get back to my hotel fast enough to call a best friend I’ve known as long as I’ve known myself. As I told her about my experience, she laughed and interrupted before I could ask, “That’s exactly what it’s like having dinner with you!” I called another best friend whose reaction was the same; but with him I may have also tapped into some repressed and well-deserved anger.
“Don’t complain about each other. A far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know.”
Since then, when I find myself annoyed with others, I pause to look at my own behavior. I may not do THAT particular thing, but I do other things that are equally or more annoying. I try to get over myself, embracing the grace of my friends, the grace of God, and I try to relax.
So how about you? Wound a little tight about something you’d rather pretend you did not do? Think about it, pray about it and let it go. “Perhaps a far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know.”
Prayer
Gracious God, help me get over the things that annoy me most about others and myself. And just as you and others “get over” my stuff, please enlarge my grace tank – both its capacity and flow, for giving and receiving until it wastefully overflows. Amen.
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