Our Daily Walk: Conflict Resolution

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/2hd7op

Bob was typical of your every day, average, middle class family man. He worked hard, provided for his family, taught his kids how to camp and play ball. He was a good man. But Bob had some hidden faults as well.

A few months back Bob did something out of character. He took revenge on someone. His feelings had been hurt when a long time friend decided to do business with someone else instead of him. Bob felt betrayed and felt that he should have had all of his friend’s business, and so he set about to get even with his friend.

The more he thought about the event, the angrier he became. “If that’s the way my ‘friend’ treats me, then I’ll show him a thing or two,” Bob said. And so he did. Bob decided that the best thing he could do to his one time friend was to spread a rumor or two about his business. Eventually those rumors took hold in the community and Bob’s friend suffered some losses in his business.

As much as Bob rationalized in his mind that his friend had it coming to him, he still couldn’t quite cope with the guilt of it all. Looking back, Bob had not even spoken with his friend after all this occurred and an uneasy feeling fell over him. “Could it be that I was mistaken in some way about this all?”

But the part that really brought the guilt home was during worship service one morning. As Bob stood to lead the congregation in prayer he looked out and saw his friend sitting there with his wife and children. As Bob bowed his head and began to speak the prayer he realized that the words were not coming to him as they should. His concentration on leading the prayer was being disrupted by the sight of this man that he had harmed.

And then there was the sermon. The preacher began his sermon with a passage from Matthew 5:23-26, part of the Sermon on the Mount.

“Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are still on your way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there until you have paid the last penny.”

Bob didn’t hear much else after that. He just stared at that passage in his own Bible. The preacher had no idea what had been going on, but he spoke directly to Bob’s situation.

When the sermon was finished and the congregation stood to sing, Bob moved to his right and came down the aisle towards the preacher. On his way, he paused by his friend and whispered something in his ear, then continued to the front.

Bob confessed, “I didn’t really realize how my actions against my friend were so dangerous to me until it began to interfere with my worship. The words of Jesus brought it all home to me and I am so sorry for what I have done. I thought that I was doing something to another person. Instead, I was really harming myself. I have almost lost a friend and nearly lost my soul.”

Friends, Bob was fortunate to feel the guilt and to experience the real interference that sin has with our relationship with God and with others. He was fortunate that his own heart was still tender and able to feel the pain that he had caused others. Finally, he was fortunate that godly sorrow caused him to right a wrong and reverse the course of a bad decision.

If we would always follow the advice in God’s book we would always find ourselves doing the right things. Jesus said that righting a wrong is more important than coming to offer worship to God. We must have a clean heart to properly worship. And how can we have a clean heart if we know that we still have sins that we need to correct? We can’t.

Paul said in Ephesians 4:25-26, “Therefore, putting away lying, and ‘Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,’ for we are members of one another.‘Be angry, and do not sin:’ do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.”

On Our Daily Walk today, may we always be quick to reconcile with others and may we never pass up an opportunity to right a wrong as soon as we are made aware of it.

Our thought for the day: “An apology is a good way to have the last word.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.