hope

Hope In Hard Times is the teaching series we just finished at my church currently. "Waiting In Hope" was the main theme a couple weeks ago, and it was really challenging for me. i'm not a patient person. waiting and not knowing is not something i like. it drives me insane actually. i really have a hard time with the unknown, unplanned and unexpected. i hate surprises. i hate not knowing what's in front of me. i'm a planner. a crazy planner, and a disorganized one at that (don't ask). but that's me. uncertainty? ugh. yuck. yuck. yuck. i don't like not knowing...that's why this talk and even a random blog post find, really hit home.

for the talk series, we've been going through 1 Peter. this week was 1 Peter 4:7-19. in the first few verses, peter talks about what it means to be a christian in relationship with other people especially during conflict and "hard times" with them. peter's challenge to us is to continue to love and serve those in your community when you're going thru tuff stuff but especially when going thru tuff stuff caused by other people. not just people "out there," but people close to home. people that are supposed to love and support you through thick and thin but currently aren't for whatever reason.

after stumbling across this post from Nae, i really felt it mirrored closely what peter was saying also but from another angle. some of it that especially hit home, i've pasted below:

"As my friend Allan says, we must be willing to protect our friendships, and make sure that we don’t loose them over things that can be worked out. I realize that sometimes we might not say the complete truth because we either are not sure if the feelings or attraction are worth a penny or sometimes we are just afraid to hurt the other person so we figure it’s better to tell them half truths, other times we blatantly lie or remain silent thinking we are protecting the person or may be protecting ourselves…trust me, I’ve applied these reasons often times. In reality when the actual truth unfolds at a latter time, it causes even more pain than if everything was laid out at the very beginning. What honesty does is that it lets the person or people involved know what is actually going on…even if that’s the only thing that it accomplishes. I highly doubt that it does anyone any good, especially living in a small community, to live half-truth lives or protect ourselves by not speaking the truth. Now, I’m not advocating for people to always broadcast everything that is going on every time they think they like someone or something along those lines, but I think the minute we realize it might create some tension, it should be brought up for the sake of protecting our friendships. What honesty doesn’t do is make the hurt or disappointment less real, in fact it does the complete opposite. At the end of the day, if the truth is out there, each person is responsible for what they do with it. Along these same lines, I think the people around us should also play an important role to make sure that we are living honestly with our intentions, feelings and actions."

i feel like i was challenged by peter but also by nae. nae challenged and reminded me that relationships require honesty. peter challenged me to continually love and serve even in the midst of conflict and struggle with other people, even the ones that are afraid to bring their concerns up. i truly agree that it makes things worse and damages relationships to avoid conflict rather than confronting it "...I think the minute we realize it might create some tension, it should be brought up for the sake of protecting our friendships."

i pray that the moment i realize i might have an issue with someone or something, that i approach my feelings with that person honestly and without delay...because i've felt the damaging effects of the opposite and it hurts.