Tear Down the Wall

In Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul talks about how the Jews and the Gentiles are reconciled through Christ. I especially like verses 14-16 which say "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility."

Yesterday, a friend of mine made a comment that hurt me. I could have decided to not say anything and just hold in the hurt, but I have learned that is not the best thing to do. Holding in hurt only gives the devil a foothold. He will cause that hurt to eat away at you, and a wall usually goes up between you and that person who hurt you. If you put up enough walls, soon no one can get close to you. That is NOT what God wants! There are always going to be people who disagree with you, and you will not always agree with others on all issues. God made each and every one of us and we are all different. There are definitely issues that are "hot topics" that people usually have passionate opinions on and won't be easily swayed to believe a different way. This was the case yesterday. I gave my opinion on an issue and my friend didn't agree with me. I admit that I was very hurt at first, but I knew I needed to address it with her instead of holding it in. I typed out a message to her and I really tried to make sure I didn't say anything to hurt her. After a little while, I hadn't heard from her so I went back and reread what I had said. I noticed that I might have said some things in a way that may have been taken wrong. I quickly wrote another note explaining that I hope I hadn't hurt her and I apologized if I had. My friend wrote back shortly thereafter and apologized as well. I don't think either one of us wanted this disagreement to harm our friendship.

There will always be something that you disagree with others on. How do you handle it when someone disagrees with you? What do you do if someone says something that hurts you? Do you confront that person or hold it in? If you confront, is it done lovingly or do you try to hurt them the way you were hurt? Holding hurt in builds walls, but so does constantly being hurt by harshly spoken words. Ephesians 4: 2-3 says "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." Let's all work to build unity among others instead of walls. If you know you have built a wall between you and someone else, do whatever you can to tear down that wall. Go to that person and apologize. If they had hurt you, be honest about what they said and how it made you feel. Even if that relationship can't be saved, you tore down a wall that won't get in the way of another relationship. Don't allow those walls to be built!