The Gift of Difficult People
St John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, was a difficult person. He just didn’t fit it. Just as well he went off into the desert to live. But people were still drawn to him because he ‘told it to them straight’. The dregs of society loved him and were transformed. The leaders and religious people rejected him. Eventually he was murdered for doing what a prophet does best: challenging people into the ways of God.
Most of us do not have prophets on hand to challenge us into Gods ways but we have difficult people, or people who dearly love who can sometimes be difficult. Our natural response to difficult situations is ‘fight or flight’, to submit or to be aggressive. But God’s creative love wants more from us than either of those. These are the moments of grace whereby we are being called into being bigger people. This does not mean it will be easy. These ‘moments’ can last a long time and can take an awful toll on us. When we are in such situations we need to enter into ourselves and in our hearts ask for God’s guidance. We need to listen, to think, to take advice and then bring the wisdom of God’s strong love into our lives.
Loving God, you not only console u,s you also challenge us. Give us the wisdom of your Spirit that in the difficult situations of life we may love like Jesus, our brother. We ask this in his name, confident that you will hear us. Sr Kym Harris