While reading...

Last week I began reading The Journey to Truth Is an Experience. Among this authors books this one is pretty simple to read. So far I've enjoyed it.

One sentence struck me-- "It is not up to us to exclude anyone from our human experience; only God can make that choice and He does so through the situation in which he places us." I was thinking about how, in the community that I am a part of here, there are some people that Ido not complete understand and that I perhaps can't find anything in common with. But when we are together talking and sharing about our lives I am struck my how my words affect these people, how they see something extraordinary in what I find ordinary in my life. And so I've come to the conclusion that it may not be for my benefit but for theirs that we are together. It is certaintly making me re-examine some things in my life.
Anyway, this whole thing led to another train of thought about the Apostles-- they cannot have all liked one another and got along all the time. They were a bunch of social rejects who were united by one thing- Jesus Christ. He was their one unifying factor. Fisher men, tax collectors, men sitting in trees to be able to see him. Maybe they even knew of one another and of their acts but still they learned to love one another, or maybe just tolerate each other, because Christ saw something valuable in them. He felt that their friendship was important to His mission here on earth.
Another thing occurred to me. Sometimes people who we don't neccessarily have anything in common with can be the best at accessing situations for us because they are not subject to the situation in the way that we are. So despite not having some things in common they can be great for helping to bring us to the reality of situations.
And...as the Bible points out we each have certain gifts so despite the fact that we might not like someone they might have something, some talent that we can use in some way.

So....maybe we're supposed to tolerate that person we really don't like because they have something that we need, whether it's physical or whether it is just something that we need to hear.