Devotion: Friendliness, Competition and Aggressiveness
Please take the time to read Romans 12:9-21
Think about people you don’t like. Maybe you don’t like them for good reason or maybe for reasons you can’t remember. Think about people you don’t agree with. I mean you disagree with their principles, their parenting, their position on the Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce romance. Everything. Think about people who annoy you. I mean really annoy you. You know who I’m talking about. Those that crawl right up under your skin and set up camp, triggering your pet peeves with their bad habits and personality quirks, bringing out the worst in you.
Go ahead. Do it. I did. Because that is who I think Paul is talking about in this letter to the Romans. That is who he is calling on us to love, to live in harmony with, to feed, to bless and not curse, and not take revenge against.
And at some point as I was ruminating on this passage and the people I don’t like, don’t agree with and who annoy me, trying to figure out how I could do a better job of living this scripture and not just reading it, I saw my first campaign television commercial of the year, not to be the last.
Elections. Politics. Politicians. Democracy. They can bring out the worst in all of us. Commercials state and we tell our friends – and ourselves – half truths or complete lies about those on the other side. Posts, texts, postcards and more and more commercials repeat the negativity. And there’s ten more months of this. (But who is counting?)
It can seem sometimes like we are either mean to those who do not share our views, or we ignore them all together hoping they just go away – or at least don’t make eye contact. It’s mentally, physically and spiritually exhausting. This is not what God intended. There has to be something in the middle, a better way.
And then along comes Pastor Greg’s worship series, ‘Survival of the Friendliest’. That’s it. That’s the middle ground between mean and ignore. Friendly. Being the friendliest.
I love the title of this series. The picture in my head is a world where people are smiling, laughing, making eye contact, listening to each other, apologizing when necessary, giving each other the benefit of the doubt, practicing kindness, being joyful and faithful, living in harmony. And it’s something we can all do. We should all do. Being friendly. Being a friend. Nurturing friendships.
Over the next ten months, let’s develop the habit of being friendly in the face of people who we don’t like, don’t agree with and are annoyed by. And look to Paul’s letter to the Romans tells us how. We can do this!
Good, Gracious and Generous God, Help us all to live Paul’s words, especially in the face of those we don’t like, don’t agree with and are annoyed by. When others choose to ignore or be mean to your children, lead us down the path of friendliness. In your name we pray. Amen.
Written by Dacia Kruse
Dacia lives in Lincoln and was married in October. She is a lobbyist and mediator through The Mediation Center where she primarily works with parents who are separating and trying to figure out how to co-parent their kids. She has been a member of Sheridan since the late 1990’s. She regularly attends Lunch Table Theology and serves on a Saturday evening hospitality team, the Sunday morning Welcome Center team and as a Wedding Coordinator. In her free time, she likes to read, travel, shop and decorate her house.