People who annoy me

If only you saw things like I did…

I have my quiet times using “the message’ paraphrase mostly.

I find that I have read other versions of the bible so much that somehow I have managed to inoculate myself from the sharp scalpel of truth.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit is able to cut through this defence with my N.I.V. (the translation I mostly use for bible study or teaching) but I have found it happens more regularly when I engage with “the Message’.

This morning is an example of that.I am sitting in the Poatina service station, doing another shift. I actually enjoy being here because I get the time to do a bit of reading, have a quiet time and still connect with the steady stream of people who come for petrol or a chat.

In my quiet time this morning I read:

Romans 14:1 Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do. And don’t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don’t agree with—even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently.

This passage spoke directly to me. I have a bible that has the Message and NIV side by side, and often the Message gives depth and meaning to the NIV which translates the same verse as:

Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.

It is so easy to fall into the trap of paradigm warfare. Of thinking my way of seeing things is the only valid way to see things, and my job is to help people see things like me.

What I like about this verse is that it challenges me not to see myself as superior.. but to allow people who appear to me to be missing some crucial understandings, to be them and not me.

I love the way it is written means those people will probably look at me and have to do the same work.. both of us thinking we are right.

I love living in Poatina. It is forcing me to grow.

Somehow the bible makes more sense when you are dealing with the messiness of people.

Somehow the statement “Love your neighbour” takes on deeper and more challenging meaning when both you and your neighbour are in a place where you have both agreed to try to do that.

In suburbia “Love your neighbour” can mean smiling as you drive out in the morning. In a place that calls itself an “intentional community”, love your neighbour means actually wrestling with what is the “highest best” for them – and usually that means putting your own needs aside at least in part.

Yep this verse got to me this morning.

I am grateful Eugene Peterson took the time to find a fresh way to express the truth of the Bible.