By Kevin Cauley
One of the greatest challenges that we face in our lives is connecting with other people. When we think about our purpose, to love God and love our neighbor (Matthew 22:37-39), we realize that this is the great challenge God has given us. We let things get in the way of doing that. We also let things get in the way of others showing love to us. Being about the Lord’s business is being about the business of visiting with and learning about other people. The more that we can do this, the better job we will do in fulfilling our purpose in life.
One of the greatest obstacles that we place in our path of connecting with other people is simply failing to talk to them. So often we conceive of prejudices in our mind as to why a person is one way or another. We think, “I can’t talk to him/her about this because he/she will never listen.” How do we know until we try? Jesus told us that if we have a prob-lem with another that we need to go to him/her and talk (Matthew 18:15). Jesus’ way is the best way. More often than not, we will be able to resolve our differences.
Many times the reason we don’t want to talk to other people lies within our own heart. We allow others to control us by blaming them instead of doing what we can. This is debilitating. We must take responsibility for our own thoughts, beliefs, decisions, feelings, and actions. This will put us back in control of our own life and go a long way toward helping us be more relaxed and comfortable around other people so that we can fulfill the purpose that God has given us in this life.
God bless you, and I love you.