Send to Kindle

(Ok, I’m sorry, I know now the song is stuck in your head.)

But seriously, let’s talk about how often we need to just ‘let it go.’

Someone offends you at church –

• They don’t answer you when you say hello, just keep walking by, texting on their phone.
• They didn’t shake your hand, didn’t seek you out when they knew you’d been sick the week before.
• How about that one…you were sick the week before, and no one from church called to see where you’d been.
• You weren’t asked to sing in the trio, or the quartet.
• You can play the piano, but no one ever asks you to play at church, or for their special.
• What if you teach school during the week, but they’ve never asked you to teach a Sunday school class.

These are just examples, ya know, there’s all sorts of ways and places we get offended. But in all honesty, these are minor things, not mountains, but molehills.

We’re hanging on for dear life to these offenses, knuckles turning white as we rage and scream at the offense itself. Yet, all we’d have to do to make it stop hurting us is ‘Let It Go.’ So why do we hold on to them? Why don’t we let them go?

That’s the real question. Why do we hold on to things that are hurting us? Why do we mentally rage at a person who has no idea they’ve done anything to slight us?

I know of a guy who sold a young couple a van – an old van – like 30-years-old old. This young couple wasn’t real savvy with the mechanics at the time; they were newlyweds, just starting out. So they took that old van, and they used it for their new little family. They moved with that van, they took it to work; they did what they could to keep it running. Well, after a couple years the van just decided it wasn’t going to cooperate anymore, and the young couple traded it in for something that ran a bit better.

Twenty years later, the now not-so-young couple was going to be back in the same town with that guy who sold them the van, heading for the same church for a visit, only he sends on a warning that he doesn’t want to have anything to do with them. He was angry with that young couple for getting rid of the van. He had held that grudge against them, silently, for two decades. Never did the young couple know this…they were only loosely acquainted with the guy in the first place. But somehow, this man held on to his anger so doggedly that he still was upset to the point of refusing to be in the same room with them 20 years later.

So did his offense help him? No.

Since he was offended, did that mean the young couple had done something wrong? No.

Did it mean the young couple needed to change the way they were acting? No, actually. They’d done nothing to him that was offensive.

See, sometimes we think that if we’re offended, that automatically means the other party has done something wrong to us. No. It means you’re offended. This doesn’t always mean the other person is wrong.

You might have good reason for it, but then again, you might not. Even if you do have good reason for the offense, if it’s minor, why hold on to it?

All I’m trying to say is, let the small stuff go so you can concentrate on the big stuff.

That’s what we’re here for as Christians…the big stuff.

So when you have that temptation to get offended over some thing that really doesn’t matter, remember the song, and Let It Go.

(disclaimer…offenses can and do happen everywhere, not only at church. So while it’s hard to think of it this way perhaps, remember that church families are just made up of people. They’re not perfect people, just regular people.)

Sherry Chamblee can be found online at http://www.sherrychamblee.weebly.com And on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/authorsherrychamblee

About the Author:

Sherry grew up in various cities around northern and central California. This gave her all sorts of stories that sat and festered in her brain, waiting to be let loose. She eventually went to college in Wisconsin, where she met her equally frenetic husband, Rich. They have six (yes, count them) children, two dogs and a cat, and currently reside in a madhouse in the southern California area. As a family, they enjoy being active in their local church. Sherry spends her time writing when not caring for Granny, the kids, the dogs, the cat and any number of strays in the neighborhood.