Good morning…
One late afternoon, I came home from work to find a question emailed to me by a friend. She wrote, “This is the practice I find most difficult: trying to be a good ‘christian’ with people who drain you. I’m not talking about people who are sick or going through something difficult. It’s people who thrive on drama or negativity and they suck you into their vortex…. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this when you’re sleepless one night.”
Later that evening, I received the following wisdom in another email, divine wisdom offering a direct answer to my friend’s important question. A wise woman shared this quote: “The purpose of enemies is not punishment but a deepening relationship with God.” She is right. The purpose of everything difficult is just that, a deepening relationship with God. Using an example from the animal kingdom she shared with me a fresh fact. Kiwi birds have small wings because they have no predators to flee from. Though they have a life of apparent ease, they never get to fly. Weaving nature’s truth into her quote about the purpose of enemies, we learn that difficult people and situations make us depend more deeply upon God, and, accessing the power of God’s Holy Spirit, we develop the ability to soar above life’s challenges.
We all know difficult people. People who thrive on drama. People who drain us dry if we let them. People who constantly try to drag us into their negative vortex. A vortex is a whirling mass that sucks everything near it toward its center. Yet, in the presence of this seemingly inescapable and destructive energy, we are asked to simply: Be still and know God is God, and our difficult person or situation is not (Psalm 46:10).
Saying “yes” to a deepening relationship with God, equips us to say “no” to spiraling down into negativity, and we soar above hard circumstances, carried upon the Spirit’s power. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words, 2 Corinthians 2:12-13 (NIV). Prayerfully trusting in our living LORD, the Spirit will teach us the words to share as we are empowered to set up and maintain healthy boundaries. Remember, through difficult people and hard situations, God is merely whispering, “Depend on Me.”
It is important to remind ourselves regularly: people and situations only drain us if we drop the hand of God to sign the permission slip,
Sue
