Endure Anything?

A friend of mine once recounted a story that sounded a lot like an echo from Paul's letter to the Corinthians. His teenaged granddaughter, who worked as a hostess at a local restaurant, had told him about customers “who don’t recognize me” and are very abrasive and unkind. The rub is this – they are people she knows from church. While they don’t know her, she knows who they are and commented, “Grandpa, they really need to live their faith.” How sad that is. And we wonder why young people have no interest in the church after they graduate from high school! The potential for negative impressions is even worse for people who have no church affiliation to soften their observations.

We find it so hard to be inconvenienced in any way. We get incensed when our perceived rights are violated. We won’t tolerate any kind of incompetence or inattention to our needs. We are a society of victims. Paul’s words remind us that there is something much more important than our comfort, our convenience and our contentment – the gospel: “We endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.” That was a far cry from the attitude exhibited by some in Corinth who found it hard to deprive themselves of anything for the sake of the gospel.

As you go out today, look for ways to turn bother into blessing, insults into invitations, and slights into smiles. In that way, you will be removing obstacles to the gospel!