This Is Hard!
Dan Kunz
One of the stone cold, rock solid, guaranteed reactions that all kids will have at some point in time, is frustration. Whether it’s homework, chores, or virtually anything else, kids will get frustrated when things are too difficult for them, or at least they perceive them to be too difficult. The adults around them, parents, teachers, or others, smile, give them a hug, and encourage them to just try again. Eventually they’ll conquer whatever it is they’re attempting. Why can’t those same adults remember to do the same thing and have the same attitude?
In these trying times, it seems that COVID-19, politics, or social unrest have many people, even Christians, taking sides and shutting out those with whom they disagree. It’s becoming more and more difficult to accept the fact that others may have a different opinion, but that doesn’t make them bad people or, worse yet, “the enemy”. Is this easy to do? Absolutely not. It’s hard, and that’s the point. Just as kids are ready to give up when a math problem is too difficult, or raking leaves is too strenuous, or their little brother is being a pest, we may be tempted to view holding our tongue, or changing the subject, or parting with a “virtual hug”, as a very hard thing to do when we’re sure we’re on the “right” side and the other person is on the “wrong” side.
That type of forgiving and accepting attitude doesn’t come naturally. As a matter of fact, just the opposite. Our natural, human instinct is to attack and demean one another. Why? Because of our Old Adam, our sinful human nature. You only need to look as far as Adam and Eve’s sons, Cain and Abel, to see sinful hatred of another in action. Rather than accepting the fact that Abel’s sacrifice pleased God and his own did not, Cain’s fury led him to murder his brother. His act was sinful nature at its very worst.
“I guess we’ll agree to disagree” isn’t a statement heard very often today and yet, such an attitude is exactly what’s needed. Recent Supreme Court justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia were absolute opposites in their viewpoint of most aspects of the application of the law, but dear friends in their personal lives. Such a relationship seems almost beyond belief today. It may be “hard” to have a relationship with somebody with whom you have such disagreements, but, obviously, it’s not impossible. John F. Kennedy once famously said, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade…not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard…” As a nation, as a people, we are capable of doing hard things. As Christians, with God’s help, we are also capable of doing hard things, such as overlooking differences to see the blood-bought soul sitting opposite us. It’s what God expects of us! John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”