Hello ,
It is not easy living in a church community. It's full of sinful people who do all sorts of things that disturb us. But an old story from the lives of the fourth-century Egyptian monks reminds us about the biblical approach to our frustration.
A monk told his monastic leader, Poeman, "I am troubled in spirit, and I want to leave this place."
The old man said, "Why?"
He said, "I have heard unedifying stories about one of the brothers."
The old man said, "Are the stories true?"
He said, "Yes, Father. The brother who told me is a man of trust."
The old man answered, "The brother who told you is not a man of trust. For if he was so, he would not have told you these stories. When God heard the cry of the men of Sodom, he did not believe it until he had gone down and seen it with his own eyes."
The brother said, "I too have seen it with my own eyes."
When the old man heard this, he looked down and picked off the ground a wisp of straw, and he said, "What is this?"
He answered, "Straw."
Then the old man reached up and touched the roof of the cell and said, "What is this?"
He answered, "It is the beam that holds up the room."
The old man said, "Take it into your heart that your sins are like this beam, and that your brother's sins are like this wisp of straw."
I don't know if that account is actually true, or if it is just a parable, but I do know that I long for God's people to be all that He wants them to be.
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35
If God's people could only see other's value through God's eyes, there would be more peace, love, and decency with for one another. Often, we argue and complain about so many issues that don't really matter on the eternal scale of things. If we could see the immense value (through heaven's lens,) of the person that we are having trouble with, perhaps we would have a perspective that we could have never imagined.
Lord, help me to see others the way that You see them! Amen.
Have a great day and God bless!
