People can be some of life's greatest problems, myself included. People can be frustrating, hard to work with, irritating and, frankly, crazy sometimes; however, it's impossible to get through life without working with people and especially without working with yourself (which can be the most difficult at times). Understanding how to work with people and how to have grace in the times when someone makes you want to scream is vital to any social environment.
Thinking about this, I was asked to look at this quote by C.S. Lewis recently. You'll love this golden nugget:
"Can we repent if God helps us? Yes, but what does that mean, 'helping us?' We mean God putting into us a bit of Himself, so to speak. He (God) puts a little of His love into us, and that is how we love one another. We love and reason because God loves and reasons and holds our hand while we do it."
I don't know how familiar you may be with C.S. Lewis, but this quote, like many of his other ones, is packed like a loaded gun. It's got so much power behind it, and it's only a sentence or two long. It's wise, yet simple, profound, yet light and easy to hear.
Think about it; the idea of God actually putting some of His reasoning and His love in our hearts so that we may begin to have the potential to love other people, reason with them, work with them and begin to understand them, is mind-numbing. Where would we be without that little gift?
Without this gift, it would be impossible to love our neighbor as ourselves, impossible to empathize and relate to others and, even more so, impossible to be loved and reasoned with. The only reason we can love and reason is because God loves, reasons and helps us. The only thing in the world that is truly keeping us all from absolutely destroying one another are God's pieces of reasoning and love He has instilled in us.
We love because He loves, we reason because He reasons and we're patient because He's patient. Being reasonable and loving is about thinking through things, looking at them with a fair and eternal perspective and not making decisions based off of emotional, in-the-moment feelings.
In the words of my friend, "To combine love and reason, we must look beyond ourselves."
I couldn't agree more.
-Cliff
Cliff's Note: Though a situation may be difficult, find comfort in knowing that God has put His own little nuggets of love and reason within you to share with the world.