The past few months have been super hectic for me. I had to face so many tough situations concurrently and had to deal with a number of flowery characters. Dealing with people are so difficult as I tend to have a certain level of expectation of morale and ethical value standard.
Unfortunately, being a Christian does not exempt us from behaving unethically or immorally. Sometimes, a Christian can behave even worse than those who have not accepted Christ into their hearts.
In the past few weeks, I had been manipulated, used, accused and attacked by various people, both Christians and pre-believers. Sad to admit but the one who hurt me the most is a Christian whom I trusted, whilst the one who comforted me the most is a pre-believer whom I just met. I went through a season of heart brokenness and non-stop streaming of tears; questioning God why do I have to face this over and over again.
I begin to acknowledge that a Christian who do not know Christ is a grave danger to the kingdom because they represent a false reflection of God.
Realising that, I start questioning myself. Am I a true reflection of Christ?
When people look at me, do they see the characteristics of Christ?
Very rare that we get to know someone who is a true reflection of themselves, where their outward behaviour is exactly as their inner self.
For one, we are encouraged to behave positively despite how messed up we are in our hearts. Hence, there is a high expectation and false perception that people who are happy or with positive outlook, do not have issues to deal with. This is simply not true. Everyone have issues to deal with, whether they smile or frown.
Therefore, unsurprisingly, there is a growth of people committing suicide or facing emotional anxieties and mental depression; because they do not how to handle and manage challenging situations.
We need to recognize that we need someone to guide us and support us as we go through the ups and downs of our lives. We need to recognize that we cannot control any situation, and worrying about anything do not help to resolve issues.
We need to cast our burden to someone who is in control of everything, who is none-other than our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Cast your cares on the Lord
and he will sustain you;
he will never let
the righteous be shaken.”Psalm 55:22 (NIV)
After reflecting on myself, I chose to forgive the person who hurt me because I know that I am not perfect and I do make mistakes when I get emotional too. Maybe the person is going through something that I am unaware of, or God is molding certain characteristics of the person; just as how God is dealing with me.
Ultimately, I also learnt that we cannot judge others. Who am I to judge, really?
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
Matthew 7:3 (NIV)
Instead, we should be humble and allow God to continuously speak to us and correct our ways so that we can be transformed into His likeness.
“And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit. “
2 Corinthians 3:18 (AMPC)