- Scripture:
Red Flags (Being Offended)
They are going to throw you to the wolves and kill you, everyone hating you because you carry my name. And then, going from bad to worse, it will be dog-eat-dog, everyone at each other’s throat, everyone hating each other. “In the confusion, lying preachers will come forward and deceive many people. For many others, the overwhelming spread of evil will do them in—nothing left of their love but a mound of ashes. “Staying with it—that’s what God requires. Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry, and you’ll be saved. All during this time, the good news—the Message of the kingdom—will be preached all over the world, a witness staked out in every country. And then the end will come.
Matthew 24:9–14 MSG
- Reflection:
While in Church yesterday, serving on the production team and listening to the message, we are in a series about “Red Flags.” The conversation was about being or becoming Offended and how to not become triggered. Many of the trigger points were around people being hurt by the Church or in the Church because of the expectancy of what their belief is for how the Church is supposed to intervene in their lives. I will take it one further. People close to you will do the same whether in the Church or not. You can have a relationship with a person and have gotten pretty close and be able to share a few things with them. An expectancy rises up and at some point where one of the two friends or the group as a whole was expecting something that was never even spoken about in any conversation surrounding the friendship or the group dynamic. What happened? How did you guys get there?
Where do we go from here?
You got there by not speaking clearly about the framing of the relationship of the group's purpose. We have to be able to say what it is with our mouths, not by osmosis “thought transfer without conversation”. Offense happens because of this. Wars have happened probably because of a group being offended at something that they thought should be taken care of by the leaders of their party or something. Our country is going through that now. Offense is everywhere in politics. I think that is what politics is built on. We, however, need to make sure that when in the Church or around anyone, or within a group setting, we make our positions clear with where we stand and how we are going to move. I am a WYSIWYG type of person. I only know that way I am going to ask questions to understand what is being asked of me. Let’s be clear sometimes even being clear with the expectation setting, there still will be someone that feels unfullfilled, unrealistic, and have those unmet expectations. We have to manage these properly by again being clear about where we stand.
Our Prayer for Today
Father, thank you for giving us hearts that can withstand Offense and honor the character of an uncomfortable conversation. It is that power that will allow us to step into the greatness you have for each of us. Thank you for all you created us to be. Amen.