Difficult people can show up just about anywhere in your life.
It could be a sibling, it could be a relative, it could be a neighbor down the street,
someone you work with or it could even be someone that you go to church with.
There are difficult people that we'll have to deal with as long as we're in this world.
And for this week's Grace Talks, I want to have a conversation about how to deal with
the people in your life that you might refer to as being difficult
Before we get into any practical talks today. In this week,
what I want to do is simply normalize the whole idea that there will be difficult people.
And don't feel bad if you think that someone in your life is difficult.
At the heart of every difficult relationship you have
the common theme is, there are differences between you and them.
Differences in how you see the world. Differences in personality.
There are differences in goals and motivations.
There's a difference between you and that's what's causing the difficulty.
But this wasn't always the case.
Back at the beginning, God actually created people differently
for the reason not to create conflict between them
but so that there could actually be more unity between them.
When God created Adam and Eve, he did so in a way that he made them different.
He made them unique.
They were very much equal and on the same level,
but he created them uniquely
so that they were different in a way that would complement each other.
And that's the way God intended it to be.
Our differences would complement each other.
But what we see unfold in Genesis chapter 3 is that when sin entered the world,
no longer did our differences complement each other.
But now they started to compete.
In fact, God addressed Eve in that garden and he addressed Adam
and he basically told them that because of sin being in the world
no longer would their differences completely work well together.
But now they would start to compete against each other.
God was talking to Eve when he told her this.
He said, "Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you."
Now there's a lot in that one verse, but the point of it is that though Eve would
want some things from her husband that only he could fulfill, he would react in a very
different way than she was expecting.
There would be competition where God wanted there to be a completing.
No longer would they complement each other in the way God wanted.
But now there would be a competition.
And Eve was warned, your husband will be a difficult person to live with.
And Adam would receive the same.
Your wife will be a difficult person on some days.
So the good news is this.
Not always will it be this way.
Someday in heaven when we no longer have a sinful world
and a sinful nature that's plaguing us,
we will be able to see the differences in the way God created us.
In a way that we can celebrate them.
No longer will we be competing because of our differences
but in heaven we'll be able to complement each other just like God intended us.
And the other piece of good news is that you do not have to wait until heaven
to enjoy the kind of peace that God wants us to have.
Even in this world, because of what Jesus did,
we can see that our differences can complement each other.
In fact, as Jesus is talking about what he did in this world,
he acknowledges all the different gift sets, all the different personalities
and all the different things that might motivate us and drive us.
He brings an amazing unity to all of it
so that we can celebrate the differences we have with people.
So this week as we get started with this discussion
on how to deal with difficult people,
I want you to think of one person in particular.
What are the differences between you and that person?
And as you think about those differences,
would you take a step to ask God to help you celebrate what makes you different
so that instead of competing with them
you would start to complement one another in the way that God designed.