Pastor’s Lenten Blog 14

What do you do when there’s a disagreement, and there’s right on both sides?  I’ve run into another one of those lately.  For my own part, I try to listen, respect, and work through the disagreement, and sometimes agree to disagree.  Hopefully on that basis a certain amount of trust is maintained, even though agreement doesn’t happen.

God created us to be diverse and different.  Sometimes that means that people are different in ways that conflict with our own ways.  One of the things I’ve tried to do in the past is to try to please everybody; now I realize that that’s just not possible.  So I examine myself with repentance (self-honesty), grieve some, and try to go on with the awareness that differences are there and need to be respected, while at the same time go on with the awareness that I’ve got to be who I am.  It’s painful, but it’s necessary pain.  Hopefully in the pain, disagreements don’t turn into conflicts.

God, help us to appreciate each other even though we all don’t act in ways that others would like us to.