Your group, your clique, your club, your ‘gang’, your crowd. It’s great to have a core circle of friends, but it’s probably even better to open it up to include others. Who knows? You might end up with a star wars-speaking, artist with a special fondness for Big Macs in your friendship group…!
Today’s Challenge:
Start here: Deliberately seek out those you’d normally avoid today and just start with a ‘Hello’. Say ‘Hi’ to someone new at school, at the water cooler or even on Twitter.
Feeling bolder?: Got a social event coming up? Most people love going to see a movie, heading out for a meal or getting together for a party, so invite someone new and make it clear you’d really like them to come.
All out there: You might know a few people that you just can’t be bothered with: you find them annoying/boring/too hyper/too quiet (insert your own gripe here). Someone once said those people are like sandpaper: they rub us up the wrong way but eventually smooth out all of our rough edges. Bring those people into your circle somehow today.
“A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35
I once heard of this thing called a Jesus project. I can’t quite remember where I read it but it must have been at a point I realized that not everyone will be ‘your kind of person’. But, it doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be shown love and treated with respect.
A Jesus project is someone who may get on your nerves, someone who may offend you or someone whom you really wouldn’t choose to spend time with because you’re just complete opposites. I call them Jesus projects because I believe that God has placed certain people in our lives to challenge us and to make us better people. I don’t know about you but I know that at some point in my life I’ve done something that God wouldn’t approve of; I’ve offended God and I’ve been quite an annoying person to be associated with. And yet, with that being said, he still loves me unconditionally and wants to see me do well.
Wouldn’t it be great if we had the same attitude towards people whom we just don’t get on with, whom we struggle to connect with or who just plain irritate us? It could be that person with the slightly weird sense of humor or that person in your life who always seems to somehow push your buttons. Why don’t you invite them for lunch, to the movies or to church and practice being a little more like Jesus in their company?
Step out of your comfort zone and choose to see the best in people because Jesus chooses to see the best in us. In my personal experience I’ve found that the more I focus on the positive characteristics of a person, the less the negative characteristics become.
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