I'll be traveling and taking some vacation time through November
15th, so Purposed worKING will be revisiting some earlier posts until
then...
"So if you are
presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly
remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice
there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person."
When we show up at a meeting or a presentation and we take stock of the
people in the room it is always a more difficult moment if we look
around the room and there are people there who we either have some
unfinished business, or worse yet, there is someone there who we have a
problem with that is unresolved. It can be felt in the air. If we know
that one of those people are going to be there, even before we go into
the meeting or presentation, it can really throw us off and give us
angst. It begs the question why we ever let ourselves get into the
situation where we either harbor ill feelings or we allow someone to
feel the same about us. I was in a meeting the other day when someone
else said something to which I disagreed. I tried to say to her, as
politely as possible that I was in disagreement and that I thought we
should think of things in a different way. She didn't say anything back,
but it was clear that she did not like my disagreeing with her. We went
through that section of the meeting and at the break I could just feel
the coldness in the air. I got up and went over to her at the other side
of the room to say that if I had overstated my disagreement, that I
apologize. In a moment, the air was clear and we were back to the good
place we were at the beginning of the meeting. If I hadn't done that,
then I am sure that the rough patch would have gotten rougher and the
bad feelings would have not gotten better.
It's a principle we should
all follow in that we shouldn't let any bad feelings be harbored or grow
and its nothing new as we can read in Matthew; "So if you are
presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly
remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice
there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person." We may not be
going to the altar today, but we are always stepping in the footsteps
of our Lord and He does not want us to be the ones who allow for others
to have something against us. We are to be the ones to step forward,
reconcile, forgive and move on. We are to be the ones who feel the
responsibility to clear the air. As you start this week, is there any
clearing of the air that you need to do?
Reference: Matthew 5:23-24 (New Living Testament)
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