THE THIRD PRACTICAL STEP IN LOVING AND UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE.
3. JUST LIKE ME, THIS PERSON HAS EXPERIENCED SORROW, DISAPPOINTMENT, FAILURES AND ABANDONMENT.
When we realize that other people have experienced the feelings of pain, loss and other strong feelings that are common to men, it should make us stop and reflect. If I remember my sorrow, then I can understand the person in sorrow. If I remembered my sorrow, I wouldn’t just want to understand him, more than this, I would want to give him any assistance possible, for him not to abide any longer in that sorrow.
“Tis better to have loved and lost, Than never to have loved at all.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson.
That is how love works. Because I have experienced disappointments, I can understand the disappointed. Unfortunately though, people often waste their experiences, we don’t turn them into tools of love. Your disappointment must not be in vain. Your disappointment has to be turned into a source of wealth for yourself and for others. Love does this.
If I was ever disappointed, I don’t want to sit down in my feelings whining, murmuring and complaining in depression. That is what happens when my experiences force me into self-pity. When my experiences turn my attention selfishly inward, then my experience is not only wasted, but also life becomes even more torturous. The answer to this is love. Love takes a bad experience from inside and turns it outward. Love takes my disappointment from inside and turns it outside for the encouragement of others. If I was discouraged, love says I should not permit others to go through the same kind of discouragement. I reach out with understanding. I reach out to share. I take my focus from myself and put it onto others, that they might learn from my experience.
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. – Lao Tzu
My failures are not wasted only thanks to love. Love compels me to want to share with others what I learned in my failings. My experiences of failure must not be wasted. They become wasted when they are turned inside in self-pity. When I raise my head up however and look for those failing around me and share my story with them, I become their deliverer making them and myself happy in the process. I can even take my experience and fortify those that have not yet failed that they might start learning from the mistakes that I made, that led me to that failure.
Thanks to love, those who were abandoned can now take their experiences and lessons and turn them into wealth so that even nations can be fed, like in the case of Joseph in the land of Egypt. Joseph was abandoned first in the pit and then later in the dungeon. But his abandonment became the source of storage, hope and sustenance for all nations. Love makes that possible. Love does not allow you to waste your experience. You can turn it around for the enrichment of others.
To be continued tomorrow with the Following points:
- The Fourth Practical step in loving and understanding people.
- The reason why no other religion rivals Christianity.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, CHURCH AND NATION
By Pastor Sunday Adelaja
