grind

Everyone who has ever lived longs for those moments when everything is in place and living is easy.  We love being in the company of those who bring out the best in us.  They keep us in tune with the optimism that brings productivity, satisfaction, and fulfilling our sense of purpose.   They help us to become that kind of person.  That, in turn, brings us to those refreshing moments of tranquility, times of peace.

But most of life is lived in between those wonderful moments and the dullness of our daily grind.  Most of the time we have to be around people who sometimes bring out the worst in us.  In dealing with our own polarizing characterisitics and those of others, it is easy to be pushed toward depression.  Instead of dealing with it in a healthy manner, we allow those unsettling emotions to cause us to be unduly hard on ourselves, thus unduly hard to live with. 

It is not God's design for us live feeding on those nasty attitudes.  The Christian life is one of practice; what we practice we become.  God, in His infinite wisdom, allows every person who grinds on us into our lives for a purpose.  They bring to surface those things, attitudes, and habits that leave us short of what God wants to see developing in us.  Though it is difficult, often discouraging, to be brought face to face with our imperfections on a daily basis, ultimately God uses it for our growing.  If we can keep two principles in mind, it can help us to grow in grace, even in the daily grind.

People who seem to be hard on others, for whatever reasons, are generally hard on themselves.  They are dealing with their imperfections, too.  I have found the things that irritate me about others are closely related to the things I loathe in myself-window into your soul.  So, in the midst of frustration, if we can understand that hard person is hardest on themselves, we can find grounds to pray for grace-both in dealing with them and our self.  That's one principle.

The other is this:  God allows us to see our imperfections on a daily basis so that we can see our utter need for Him on a daily basis.  The Apostle Paul wrote that he would rather boast in his failings because God's glory was being shown through them.  God's strength showing up in the middle of our weakness is a powerful thing.  It frees us from having to always have the answers, which enables us to be gracious to others in their weakness.  That, alone, has the power to change a hard heart into a pliable one ready to be molded by God's hands.

So, crazy as it may sound, we should pray for the grace to embrace those difficult people and circumstances.  It is God's way of changing us daily from the stuff we hate in ourselves to the stuff that can change the world, to His glory and praise.  I will boast all the more in my weaknesses and be ever closer to His original idea of me, perfection.