Sowing Seeds: "Wanting To Win"

In this episode, we're having a real and hard conversation about the seeds we let others throw our way. How do we react when people give us heartburn? How should we respond when other Christians treat us poorly? Is there a remedy for mending damaged relationships with others? All of this and more...we're going to get serious!

Transcript

Sowing Seeds: “Wanting to Win”

In this episode, we're having a real and hard conversation about the seeds we let others throw our way. How do we react when people give us heartburn? How should we respond when other Christians treat us poorly? Is there a remedy for mending damaged relationships with others? All of this and more...we're going to get serious!

[Music]

What's up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Churchosity podcast.

If you're looking for the spot to hang out and talk about all things church culture,

but through the lens of a gen X or then guess what? You have landed in the right place.

My name is Heath Brady. And I'm Andrea Brady. And we are your faithful Churchosity podcast personnel.

Back again.

I'm gonna change it up every once in a while. I did. I'm thinking about it too.

Oh, thinking about something different to say. Yeah. So how are you today?

You really want to know? I don't know. Do I really want to know?

Man, I am so upset. I am so incredibly upset right now. Okay.

Gen X or in me is crawling out of my skin right now. You are not gonna believe what I found out today.

What?

And it's kind of funny because you know how a few episodes ago I referenced the old movie Road House, Patrick Swazey.

I just found out that they're remaking it. Oh, another remake?

Yes. And not only that, Patrick Swazey's character is gonna be played by Jake Gyllenhaal.

Okay.

Which is like snooze fest. And then like the main bad guy that he has to fight is gonna be played by Connor McGregor.

Oh.

The MMA guy.

Okay. Oh boy.

I'm just like seriously guys. Like we have to remake another 80s classic. I mean, is Hollywood seriously that hurting for material?

I guess so.

Like, oh my gosh.

So I'm a little peeved about that. A little hotter than the caller about that. So just look out everybody.

Right. Well, they could have created Road House 2.

Oh geez.

They are all the children of the originals.

No.

This, this son of Patrick Swazey's character from the first one comes back for revenge or something.

Yeah, right.

Oh my gosh.

That actually might be a better movie than the remake of the original.

Good grief.

Yeah. And it's 2024, which means it's an election year.

Yeah.

Which means I'm trying to make friends with all of the super elite in rich right now because they're all busy building these bunkers.

And I want to go hide in one until next February.

Oh my gosh. We could just hide in our house.

That is true.

Just have everything delivered.

Yes. Yes.

I don't want to talk to anybody because I don't want anybody talking to me about politics.

Yeah. Are we adopting our policy where we're not going to talk about politics on the podcast?

We're going to do our best.

Yeah.

Okay.

The year is young Andy.

Yeah.

It's, I mean, it's still only January technically.

Right.

There's stuff brewing behind the scenes that might be interesting to talk about the not too distant future.

We are not a political show.

No, we're not.

And there are certain things that we have kind of sworn and made an oath that we would not talk about.

And I know politics is one of them.

We've, we've, we've teared close to the line a few times.

Right.

But we've never like had a, a full on episode like this week in the United States of America politics.

So I'd rather talk about happy days, different strokes and facts alive.

There you go.

Word.

A little house in the prairie, of course.

Yes.

Yes.

Right.

That would be a heck of a lot more fun than talking about politics.

Yeah.

But anyway, Andy, enough about me.

How are you doing?

I'm doing fine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's because you stay off of the socials like me.

Well, pretty much given up Twitter or X, whatever you want to call it.

Right.

Never on that anymore.

Because that's just a cesspool.

Uh-huh.

And, uh, I don't know, I'm kind of like an instant gram, some instant gram.

Instant, sorry, I stutter.

Eugen Xer.

Instagram.

The Instagram.

Yeah.

But I don't know.

The reels are funny.

I like to talk a lot, but sometimes the reels on Instagram are a little more cute, I guess, less ads.

And they're really funny, too.

They are really funny.

You sent me some really good ones today.

Yeah.

I haven't laughed that hard in a while.

It was pretty good.

But you're doing okay.

Yeah.

Good.

Pretty good.

Fantastic.

Well, I'm excited about this episode.

Yeah.

We are going to be, I think, concluding our conversation about seed planting, seed casting, seed

sewing, et cetera.

Uh-huh.

It's been an interesting conversation, don't you think?

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah.

Lots of different perspectives.

I mean, ways to look at it, you know.

Yeah, for sure.

Uh, before we get into that, though, I do have one question for you.

Yes.

How much are you loving what's going on on the Patreon side?

Oh, it's cool.

Yeah.

I'm loving it.

It warms my heart when people become a Patreon.

Yeah.

It encourages me to keep going.

And I mean, how much are you enjoying the content, though, on the Patreon side?

Oh gosh.

I forgot all about that.

How could you forget about that?

Well, you know, I was my perspective.

There we go.

Well, our Revelation series is seriously awesome.

Yeah.

And, yeah.

I mean, would you say that everybody needs to become a Patreon person today, so that they

can take part in that?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, eventually we might release the Revelation series to everyone, but they're going

to have to wait a really long time for it.

Yeah, at the rate we're getting to the book, the Lord might come back before we're finished.

We are going through the book of Revelation with the fine tooth comb.

Or I shouldn't say we.

I'm just along for the ride because I'm not the scholar like you are.

Oh, whatever.

I'm just the student.

And so I'm sitting there, who are as you unveil all there is to know about the book of

Revelation.

And if you are a Patreon and are not currently going through the Revelation study with

us, you're missing out big time because it's amazing.

Thanks, honey.

I'm having a lot of fun today.

Yeah, it's really cool.

I along those lines of what you mentioned about maybe someday releasing it to the quote

unquote free side of our podcast.

Yeah.

It's something that I do have planned to do, but I'm not going to do that until we're done.

So you may have to wait until who knows when I mean, I don't know.

Let's put it this way.

There's 22 chapters in the book of Revelation.

Our fourth episode in our study in Revelation drops on Wednesday, the 31st, I think it is.

And we're only midway through chapter two.

So if that's any kind of indication of how much time we're taking to dissect this for ourselves,

you should get on board now.

So anyhow, food for thought, consider becoming a Patreon today.

Look for us at patreon.com/churchositypod.

Do it.

All right, Andy, guess what?

Business handled.

Are you ready to continue our conversation about sowing seeds?

I would love to.

Yes.

Have you had enough of this conversation yet?

No.

No.

No, that's good.

Because I think that we may have saved the best for last.

I think we may have saved the most funnest part of the conversation for last.

We're going to get into the thick of it, I think, on this episode.

Okay.

It's a little apropos that I'm so fired up after my revelation about the Roadhouse movie

today.

Yeah.

Because while we spend a considerable amount of time talking about the concept of how we

cast seeds into the lives of people around us, good seeds and bad seeds, whether we like it

or not, some of those seeds are bad because on this side of eternity, we are not perfect.

And we do get it wrong from time to time.

And that the goal is to far outweigh the amount of good seeds that we are casting in the

direction of others, right?

That the good seeds far outweigh the bad seeds.

Yes.

Okay.

That did sound weird.

Well, that's what I'm here for.

Yeah.

You're the brains in this operation.

I say that all the time.

And then we talked about that introspective, that self-reflective aspect of casting seeds,

talking about the seeds that we cast into our own lives, the things that we prioritize and

how they affect the way that we are around others.

Well, on this episode, I want to have a conversation about the seeds that other people cast

into our lives, specifically what to do with the bad

seeds that are flowing our way, especially when they're put inside of a BB gun.

Right.

Or a bazooka.

Or a machine gun.

Or their dandelion seeds.

Or seeds of thorns.

The ones that float up your nose and you choke and you can't get rid of them.

Right.

And they get cotton, you know, cottonwood or cottonwood.

Oh, that everybody's allergic to.

Yeah.

Right.

I know that in the time that we live this life, as a follower of Jesus Christ, we say it

all the time that we should live and look through the eternal perspective and strive to

be just like stellar ambassadors for Christ because I was talking with a buddy of mine recently

and he made this really great point that whether our example of Christ is a good one or

a bad one, we are the example of Christ to others.

Right.

And I've said it before that we should do as Christians, we should be doing everything

we can to make Christ attractive, you know, to make following Jesus desirable.

Well, yeah, but we also don't want to give him a bad name.

That's what I mean by the bad example.

Right.

People know that we're Christians and we act unbecomingly and they aren't Christians, then

they would say things like, well, why would I want to, you know, do what you're doing because

there's no difference.

Right.

Or it's worse.

Or it's worse.

Yeah.

Are you sure that you're going to heaven, bro?

Because I'm not even that bad.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But I wanted to talk about those times when we're receiving seeds from others when we're

receiving treatment from others because let's be honest, it's not always rainbows and butterflies

in the experience that we have with others, right?

Yeah, exactly.

There's people that just annoy us.

There's people that rub us wrong.

There's people that do things intentionally to get under our skin.

And while the Bible doesn't condone, punching someone in the face when they annoy you, as

fun as that would be.

Yes.

Sometimes, you know, I just want to smite someone in the name of Jesus.

I do think that Scripture gives us some really good help when it comes to navigating the

waters of tribulation brought on by others.

I would advocate just as a side note, a very important side note.

I would advocate that you are not required to take that kind of treatment.

You're not.

You are not required to sit and be somebody's whipping stick.

Like you're just not required to do that.

But what we are required to do is love.

Right.

What we are required to do is be tolerant.

And so the conversation I wanted to have on this episode is what does loving the person

and tolerating the person who hurls bad seeds at us look like.

But what might be some helps for us?

What might be some examples?

I don't want to spend really any time at all talking about the bad examples of that because

we'd be here for a whole entire hour talking about the things that we would like to do.

To people who treat us poorly.

But I think that it really matters.

I think that this is a conversation that not many people talk about in the church, in church

culture.

That, you know, what do I do when people treat me poorly?

And I'm not talking about the extreme of this.

We've talked at great lengths about spiritual abuse and church hurt.

I'm talking about everyday relational conversations and behaviors.

Co-workers, people on staff, people in the ministry, you know, whatever it might be.

And keep in mind, keep in mind that I'm still going to maintain that this is not an us

versus them conversation because as I've mentioned previously, we are at fault for hurling

bad seeds at others too.

So this is kind of like a softer gut check for us in regards to that whole concept, but

more of a conversation about what do we do?

How do we live?

How do we act?

How do we feel?

How do we think?

How do we respond to the bad seed that is flung in our direction?

Right.

That sound cool?

Mm-hmm.

So Andy, do you have any preliminary thoughts about this whole aspect?

I do.

Okay.

I just looked up some scratch scripture.

I went to the Bible.

That's a good thing.

To Matthew chapter five.

Starting in verse 43, it says, "You've heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor

and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute

you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven.

Or he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous

and the unrighteous.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

If you only greet your brothers, what more are you doing than others?

Don't even the Gentiles do the same?

Therefore, you are to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect."

Mm.

And I think that loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you in verse 44, that's

the verse I specifically thought of.

And it's kind of repeated over and over again in the gospels to continuously do this.

Yeah.

When you see that verse, when Jesus saying to love your enemies, love those who oppose

you.

And pray for those who are causing you all kinds of just horrible heartburn.

Heartburn and yeah.

What does it look like to you think to love your enemies?

Like what would that look like?

Adopting the eternal perspective.

And it just depends on the situation.

I mean, maybe I offended somebody a while back and I didn't know I did something wrong

and they're just harboring bitterness.

So every time I see them, they give me like grief.

And I don't know why.

Or they just lash out at me and I think that they're the bad guy.

And really, I just don't know what to do about it.

You know, if you don't know, you don't know, right?

So praying about it and adopting the eternal perspective can really help.

Ultimately we want to give God the glory, don't we?

Yes.

So if we go to Him in prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to start working on the situation and

something comes of it, then God's glorified.

Is that beautiful?

Yeah.

So it's like we are so caught up in wanting to solve our own problems all the time so

that we can be pat ourselves on the back.

Oh, I'm such a good Christian.

Who would look what I did?

I solved this problem.

You know what I mean?

That's not the perspective we're looking for here.

So I have a question.

What if the situation doesn't get resolved in a godly way?

Is God still glorified in that?

Hmm.

I mean, using your example, what if that person has a beef against me?

But they never bring that to me.

They just treat me terribly.

And I'm left going, what the heck, bro?

So how my question is, how is God glorified in an unresolved situation, especially between

two quote unquote, brothers in Christ, our sisters in Christ?

I would suggest that the way that God is glorified is the way that we react to it.

Yeah.

You know, pray.

You know, you always talk about, you know, we're not always going to win, but we always want

to win, wanting to have a good attitude for him and to glorify him so that you don't,

you know, give him a bad name.

Sure.

I think that that might be somewhat along the lines of why Jesus is saying here in Matthew

5 to love your enemy and pray for the ones who persecute you.

Because if I am still actively loving an individual who is treating me like garbage, I'm putting

Christ's love on display because isn't it also true that if we live for ourselves, we stand

in direct opposition to God?

Scripture says that apart from Christ, we are at enmity with him.

Right.

And yet he still has patience and long suffering and grace and love for us.

Right?

So I think that first of all, having that as you call, as you said, the eternal perspective

that I still need to love this person.

I'm still commanded and called to love this person regardless of how they're treating

me or talking to me or what have you.

But then when you go the extra step and pray for that person who is treating me poorly,

not only does that keep my heart in the right place, it also demonstrates what Christ would

do also.

Because think about it this way.

What were one of the seven things that Jesus uttered from the cross while he was dying?

Father forgive them.

Forgive them.

For they don't know what they're doing.

Yeah.

And even if you're angry and you're upset and you don't know what to do, going to the

Lord and sing, Lord, I'm upset.

I'm angry and I don't know what to do.

Right.

He's him glory.

Yeah.

Be angry yet do not sin.

Yeah.

It's okay to be angry.

Scripture doesn't say you can't be angry.

Right.

It just says don't sin in your anger.

That's right.

Right.

You know, and I think that those are probably some of the most honest prayers to pray.

Lord, I really am angry at so and so and so and I want to rip their face off.

Help me.

Jesus, so loving.

I'm just kidding.

Well, isn't that a more loving thing to do than actually actively hurt the person?

Well, yeah, I mean, because you don't want to retaliate.

I don't even know what I would do.

Honestly, I'm not a violent person.

I'm a little tough.

I know you sound so terrible.

I sound so terrible.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah.

But I, but do you see why I think this is such an important conversation?

I don't think this, this aspect of the daily Christian life is talked about enough.

No.

It's hard.

It's, it's really, really hard.

Like when, when people hurt you over and over and over again, does there ever come a point

where you get to do something about it or, or do you just have to sit there and take

it?

Talked about this before, I think, on some of our other episodes about, you know, limiting

your exposure or your time spent with people that do those kinds of things to you.

Sure.

Because you're not called to be a dormant or punching bag.

Right.

Yeah.

It makes me think of second Timothy chapter three, starting a verse one, realize this

is in the last days, difficult times will come.

Our men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient

to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossip without self-control,

brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceded, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers

of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.

What do we do with these kind of people?

Avoid such men as these.

Right.

Well, there you go.

You don't have to sit there and take it, y'all.

Good to void.

You can avoid.

Deflect.

Right.

But be careful in the deflecting because if you're inactive, if you're actively deflecting,

that might include a right cross.

Yeah, now.

A kid.

I'm imagining, you know, walking through the hallway as a high schooler and you see somebody

that you don't like or you don't want them to see you and you put your folder or your binder

up in front of your face like you're sneaking around.

You know, that's really funny because I was also thinking about how when I was in middle

school, there was this kid named Paul that was just such a bully to me.

And he like had his growth spurt before I did.

So he was a pretty good-sized boy.

And one day, I think it was in the seventh grade.

One day, he just walked up to me and flipped my hat off my head.

Oh, yeah, classic.

And then he just started doing it over and over and over again day after day after day.

And all through the eighth grade, you know, he got bigger and I didn't and he was, he was

scary and I would avoid this kid.

First, we're near a high school.

We both go to the same high school.

We both turn out for the freshman basketball team.

We both make the basketball team.

He earns the starting power for position.

I'm the sixth man.

So I'm the backup power forward and him and I are just constantly, you know, going at

it and, you know, one point during practice, he, I beat him to the glass to make a land and

he punched me in the face to foul me.

So I couldn't make the basket.

Oh, man.

And I got up and was ready to go to blows with the guy and my coach was like, get to the

locker room.

I got this.

Yeah.

I ended up leaving that school and going to a different school.

And then in my senior year of high school, I was playing football for a, for a different

high school team and the entire game.

I was lined up on the opposite line from Paul, the opposite side of the line as Paul,

all night long.

And he played dirty play after play after play after play because guess what?

He stopped growing, but I didn't.

I was bigger than he was at this point.

So the only way that he could get to me was to talk trash to me to play dirty and my teammates

always had my back.

They were like, just getting the hell, just getting the hell and we ended up winning the game.

And after the game was over, now you're talking about six years of hostility here.

Right.

But I, for all intents and purposes, had every right to just like rearrange the facial, facial

features of this young man.

And we went through the line to high five, the other team like you always are supposed to

do.

And when I came across and got to Paul, I stuck my hand out and said great game, Paul and

we shook hands and that was the last I ever saw the guy.

Hmm.

Now to this day, I don't know what he thinks of me.

I have a lot of thoughts about him.

I'm sure he's an avid listener.

Well, he should be.

Paul, this is for you.

But my point is that think, you know, I think back to like my freshman year when my coach stepped

in and intervened, like saw the problem and knew what the problem was and stood in the

gap for me.

Said he'd go to the locker room.

I got this.

Right.

And he took care of it.

I worry about Paul for the rest of that basketball season.

My senior year of high school lined up on the opposite side of the line.

When I recognized who I was lined up against, I was in the huddle with my boys and I was

like, you aren't going to believe this.

And during a time out, like I explained to them who this guy was and they all were like,

don't you worry about him.

We got you.

Mm-hmm.

And my point in this like super long story about Paul is that in my opinion, it really

paints a glorious picture of the advocate that we have with our savior in the midst of these

moments of trial and tribulation and the support that we have around us as well.

Because while on the one hand, yes, we are told to avoid people like this.

But there are times when those people are unavoidable.

There are times when they come at us.

There are times when...

I mean, how do you avoid somebody that you share a cubicle with?

How do you avoid somebody that you share an office space with?

How do you avoid somebody that you serve in ministry with?

How do you avoid a family member?

You know what I'm saying?

Right.

Like, there inevitably are people that we are required to routinely and regularly cross

paths with that cause us grief or as you put it, heartburn.

So avoiding them is more or less out of the question.

So it's in those moments that I feel like the verses you read in Matthew 5, especially

you apply, you know, to have a heart of love and to pray for them.

But you still don't have to take it.

Like you still don't have to take it.

You can still speak up for yourself.

You can still, you know, tell that person, "I really don't like the way that you're treating

me."

Here's the thing, Matthew 18 is a beautiful kind of ace up your sleeve when you have these

moments of conflict that persist for a long periods of time to go to your brother or sister

in Christ in private and show them their fault.

Like that responsibility still is yours.

You can't, you can't like go away countering in frustration because that, because there's

never been a conversation about it.

There still is a responsibility and onus on our shoulders to go to that person in love

and gently rebuked them and say, "Hey, I don't like when you do this to me, because you please

knock it off."

Now it's like swatting the tennis ball to the other side of the net.

Now this is on their shoulders.

Oh, you mean like setting a boundary?

Bingo.

Bingo.

Boundary.

Creating a boundary.

Boundaries are biblical.

Boundaries are biblical.

So I don't know.

I know that that Paul's story was pretty lengthy, but it's, it's, to me like I lived that

for six years with a bully.

And I wish that I would have had some form of instruction to be able to like have a conversation

with the guy.

Even if it would have meant that we would have had it been separated because we would

have started scrapping.

But to kind of have the tools in my toolbox, if you will, on how to deal with that type

of conflict would have been extremely beneficial for me at 15, 16, 17 years old.

Not to mention at my age now, you know, which is, you know, I'm much older and I'm much

wiser.

I still don't get this right all the time because you know what, Andy?

What?

I don't like it when people do bad things to me.

Oh, really?

I really don't.

Especially when I have no idea why they're doing it.

You know, like I just don't get it.

I just don't get it, but I'm still called to love.

There's a lot of times where I'm just quiet.

You know, I don't say a word and I'm not trying to put myself on the same level as Jesus,

but I can appreciate where it says that when he was before his accusers, he uttered

not a word.

My silence is not necessarily agreement.

It's not necessarily concession.

It's more what's the point in saying anything?

Because I'm not going to change their mind or their behavior, right?

So that's where that praying for your enemies that are persecuting you, loving your enemies

who are persecuting you.

Like that's where that kind of, where the rubber meets the road in effect.

Yeah.

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

What other thoughts might you have?

Well, how important it is to choose your friends wisely.

Yeah, I think my parents used to say, "Choose your friends.

Don't let your friends choose you."

Yeah.

That's a little worldly, but you know.

Yeah, my parents said that too, actually, surprisingly enough.

And it makes me think of Proverbs 1320.

It says, "Walk with the wise and become wise for a companion of fool's sufferers harm."

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sometimes we bring heartburn on ourselves just because we choose to surround ourselves with

people that do this to people.

Why do we do that?

I don't know.

Is it maybe because we had something in common with the person?

Yeah.

But maybe we could, you know, hang out with them or whatever?

I, yeah.

I mean, it's a lot of times it's out of our control.

Like if we're co-workers or co-laborers in the ministry or whatever, but you bring up a really

good point.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It is, I mean, I don't know.

It just happens sometimes.

Sometimes you get lured in because of you.

I mean, maybe you're a nice person and you get taken advantage of.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you just can't say no and it's really hard to say no.

Because I'm such a likable guy and I do so many wonderful things for people that people

want to have me on their team, right?

Right.

Or you feel sorry for somebody.

And I mean, these are sometimes it's good to, I mean, you obviously as a Christian, we want

to help people.

Yeah.

But, um, seem--

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Exactly.

But then sometimes people latch on to you and they're not healthy.

They take advantage of it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then if-- and then that one time that you're like, no, I'm not going to be there and

they just like explode all over you.

Yeah.

Yeah, that sucks.

Yeah.

[laughs]

To be brutally honest, Andy.

Right.

What?

Our culture is a really tough nut to crack.

Because we're so divisive and we're so hurtful to each other in the name of Jesus.

[laughs]

Like, there are so many--

Sure.

There are so much pain that has been caused.

There are so much divisiveness that has been reached because, you know, in the name of

God.

Yeah.

And that is not our goal.

No.

Our goal is not to divide.

Our goal is to have real, genuine, honest conversations about good things, about bad things.

About things we need to hear, not always necessarily what we want to hear.

Mm-hmm.

Because I think that's what Jesus is in the business of doing with his bride anyway.

Right.

Telling us what we need to hear even when it stings a little.

Mm-hmm.

There's people in the church culture that still kind of get their jollies on cutting

other believers down.

While on the one hand, nowhere in scripture are you going to find an example of where you

have to just let people walk all over you?

You're also not going to find anywhere in scripture anything that says you should stuff

it and keep all your feelings to yourself.

Because neither one of those things accomplish unity in the faith.

That's all I'm trying to say.

Right.

So when someone shoots you with bad seeds with the BB gun?

Or the machine gun?

Or the bazooka?

[laughs]

[laughs]

What are we going to do?

[laughs]

We're going to tell our mommy about it.

Right.

No, I think that your reminder from Matthew 5 is a really, really great kind of go-to verse.

Yeah.

A safety net for us.

I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Right.

Because at the end of the day, Jesus says that the world will know that we're his disciples

in the way that we love each other.

True.

And sometimes the way that we love our brothers and sisters in Christ is to say nothing in retaliation,

to do nothing in retaliation and just keep our mouths shut and give it to the Lord and

prayer and let him advocate for us.

Let him handle the situation.

It also doesn't hurt, I think, to have a couple of really close friends that you can lean

on.

That's true.

Like my boys from the football team.

[laughs]

They carried me through that whole game.

I couldn't have done it without them.

And that is such a beautiful picture in my opinion of discipleship that we're in this

together.

And if there's that one person that just or more that BB guns us with seeds till the cows

come home, we have a remedy, at least for the condition of our hearts.

Because I think that at the end of the day, that's what we have to give an account for, right?

The condition of our own hearts.

We're not necessarily responsible for the way that so and so is behaving.

No, that's true.

And honestly, Andy, I think it's a good thing to say, you know what?

So and so is the Lord's problem.

He's got me.

That's true.

Well, and when something like that happens, it doesn't hurt to go to the Lord and ask him

to show you if there's anything that you should be looking at for yourself, like any sin

or any bad attitude or, you know.

Like David prayed in the Psalms, "Search my heart and see if there will be any unclean thing

in me."

Yep.

But that's part of that prayer.

You know, to love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you.

You can't tell me that in those moments when I'm talking to the Lord, in fact, I know you

can't because this happens.

This happens.

If I have an issue with somebody and I actually go to the Lord and say, "Hey, so and

so did this and I'm upset about it nine times out of ten, the Lord's like, well, you did

this."

And this is probably why they're acting that way.

And that's still grace because Jesus prioritizes the relationship over retaliation.

Mm-hmm.

Over recompense.

And I think that remembering that vengeance belongs to the Lord is crucial because if we

were the ones that sought revenge, who?

Right.

We're not loving our enemies and we're definitely not praying for them.

Right.

So I guess in summary, what I would say, in all seriousness, it is a known fact.

In fact, of the Christian life, that there are people who just give us heartburn.

But at the end of the day, we're responsible for our hearts before a holy God.

And when people give us heartburn, we got to love them enough to pray for them so that

the Lord can show us if there's any unclean thing in our hearts and help us have the

eternal perspective and seek reconciliation and restoration of the relationship.

And that's all we have to say about that.

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of The Churchosity Podcast, the show where

we try to give you the Gen X take on church culture.

And thank you once again as always to my phenomenal wife and outstanding co-hosts.

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Peace!

(upbeat music)