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My Two Cents
by Rev Chuck Behrens
July, 2015
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Past Articles |
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THEY are making it more and
more difficult and expensive. I don't do it that often when I fly, but
recently I checked my suitcase at the airport, and then I see it disappear
as the conveyor belt carries it beyond the curtain into that black hole
called the luggage zone. I sometimes wonder how my bag is going to be
handled. Now, I don't know exactly what baggage handlers do, but I do know
that my poor suitcase may get tossed or buried, or squished.
I've never done it but I noticed that there was a special red sticker on
one of the suitcases that Screamed: F R A G I L E.
I’m not sure if that makes a difference to plastic items or
perfume/cologne bottles or a fine wine goblet; a picture frame that might
be carefully packed away with a special red sticker. And I hope that
somewhere out there in the luggage zone that one seven-letter word will
make a difference in how things are handled - the word FRAGILE.
Ephesians 4, beginning in verse 29 and following kind of gives a blueprint
for how to handle not baggage, but how to handle the people around you.
Let's see how you're doing and how those you're with might grade you on
these verses. It says, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your
mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their
needs that it may benefit those who listen." The way you talk to people
either builds them up or tears them down. Why is this important? Because
people are fragile.
The verses go on to say, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God." How
do you make God cry? It makes God cry when we damage the people He's
trying to build. Then God lists some of the ways we can handle people that
damages human cargo. He says, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger,
brawling and slander, along with every form of malice." God is asking us
to see what He sees when He looks at the people around us - a sticker that
says FRAGILE. A FRAGILE sticker should change the way you and I handle
people.
It goes on to say, "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving
each other just as in Christ God forgave you." Now, this is a standard by
which we have to measure our treatment of our mate, our children, our
parents, our friends, our coworkers, our fellow believers, our critics,
our problem people.
Think about your own relationships. Is there too much talk that isn't
helpful for building those people up, that tears them down, that isn't
kind, compassionate and forgiving? What about the sarcasm, the put-downs,
the harsh criticism, the tendency to dwell on the negative, the names, the
cutting humor, the angry responses? A lot of times we handle people
roughly in a reaction to how they handled us. But Jesus calls us to be
pro-active, not reactive in how we talk to people. Not treating people as
we were treated, but as we want them to treat us. And treating them not as
they've treated you, but as Jesus has treated you.
The measure of how big a person you are, is how big or small people feel
after they've been around you.
I wonder if you've been making people feel more valuable or less valuable
by the way you treat them. Isn't it time you put that FRAGILE sticker on
the people around you, even the hard ones who are that way probably
because they've been thrown around and broken so much. Each one of them is
made in the image of God, and each person is easily broken whether they
show it or not.
I don't want my breakable possessions thrown around and broken. And God
doesn't want His precious breakable creations thrown around and broken.
Remember, they're fragile. Handle with extreme care.
See you in Church,
Chuck
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