Loving Enough to Confront
“Call me when you get a chance.”
That was the message I received this morning. I know from experience text messages like this can often be bad news. Sometimes they also mean I’ve done or said something for which I’ll shortly find myself apologizing.
This wasn’t the case today, but it took a minute to figure that out.
A very dear friend of mine called me up to “check on things.” Do you have one of those sort of friends? You know, the ones who notice when things may not be “quite right” in your world and loves you and your relationship enough to check on you? I hope so.
Today he called to run down some things he perceived as red flags and simply wanted to clear the air and make sure everything was well and good. And they were, but that’s not the point. The things he was seeing had perfectly legitimate explanations and turned out to be non-events. But what touched me was the FACT that he called.
If people would take the initiative to do what my friend did today, much of the conflict in life, and in the church, would vanish before our very eyes; the glory of the Lord would be manifest and our love for each other would show the world that Jesus is real and sent from God.
Honestly, this was very special to me. I’m one of those people to whom relationships extremely important. This simple phone call let me know that the relationship was important; to me AND him.
So why don’t people have “hard conversations”?
Fear, apathy, disinterest, lack of love, they think it is inappropriate, maybe a different worldview, or maybe they don’t really have a relationship with the other person to support such a phone call,
Whatever the reason, it has to be overcome. Jesus has called us to love people so deeply we are willing to say hard things, willing to confront, have hard talks, hear hard things, and make hard corrections when needed.
Our relationships are everything and they don’t just grow on sunshine and smiles. Sometimes they grow the most during hard talks and awkward moments.
What stories do you have of hard talks you’ve had that help build a relationship stronger? Tell us your story in the comments below!
