Annoying

Kara and I were discussing something tonight and she told me I should blog about it... so I am.

Last Sunday, the sermon was about being a community- being the type of community God tells us to be. How we are to interact with with other. The main scripture reference was Ephesians, 4:1-6. The part of it that I'm going to focus on is just a small part of Tim's message so if you want to actually listen to the sermon it's at this link -And if you want to hear him talk about what I'm referring to, it's at 20:26. What I'm focusing on is 4:2- "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." In other words, "Be nice and lovingly put up with one another." We are supposed to do that because we are supposed to be an example to the world of what God wants for us all.

Tim told us that the word patience there can also be translated as "long suffering." In the sermon, he makes reference to how if you've ever been a part of a marriage, a family, or even a group of friends you know that there is a certain amount of "long suffering" and patience that has to be employed. It's not because we don't love the others, it's just because they are not us. I got annoyed with Nathan often. I got embarrassed by Nathan often. There were many times where I just wanted to throw my hand across his mouth to stop him from saying something that I felt was horribly wrong or offensive.

It's almost impossible to believe (or not so much) but I'm willing to wager there were things that Nathan also found annoying about me. I know he hated that I chewed my nails, but I'm sure there were a lot of other things that he just never told me, because I couldn't help it, or it would hurt my feelings... the same thing goes for my family. Rhonda used to hate that I would sing along to every song on the radio... and she'd yell at me for not singing in the same octave as the male musicians. I would get irritated with her over equally trivial things. But we put up with it, we get over it, and we ignore it- because we love this person. Because they are a part of our family.

Then I read an article the other day on Cracked, entitled "7 Reasons the 21st Century is Making You Miserable" (Click for link, but beware of the language)

The article is based on the premise that people are more unhappy today and part of the reason why is that the number of close friends that people are reporting to have is dropping quickly and significantly. The article blames a lot of this on the internet, but I thought it was interesting that the first two reasons had a lot to do with the idea of "putting up with one another in love"

The first was: We don't have enough annoying strangers in our lives.

The author claims that annoyance is something you build up a tolerance to-- like Iocane powder.

What you do not smell is Iocane powder. It is odorless, tasteless, and dissolves instantly in liquid and is among the more deadly poisons known to man. http://www.redbubble.com/people/purplecactus/works/7602237-iocane

So the author says that the more we remove annoyances/annoying people from our lives the less able we are to deal with it when it does arise.

Makes sense to me, but then he takes it a step further with the second reason: We don't have enough annoying friends, either. Apparently before we all had the ability to filter out those who we found pompous or annoying, Americans as a whole considered themselves to be "happier in their jobs and more satisfied with their lives. And get this: They had more friends."

When people were just stuck with the people who happened to be born in the same town as they were, when they just had to "put up with one another in love" because the others weren't just like them, they said they were happier... Honestly it makes sense. It's a lot more gratifying to feel like someone who has nothing in common with you enjoys your company than to feel like someone who is practically your clone likes you. Of course clone-you is a fan... if they weren't, they would dislike themselves... but to get Joe Schmoe to like you, when you and he have no similarities?? Well that must mean you are something special. There is almost a sense of accomplishment in your friendship.

I guess I just find it a good reminder that a bit of annoyance every now and again is healthy for me... If you can get past the initial annoyance that they listen to different music or read different books, then perhaps you will be the best of friends. It's like germs... in large quantities very bad, but in small doses, beneficial to your social skills.

Plus I just sorta think it's so neat/cool/of course that God wants us to do something for Him that is actually good for us, too.  God can be so tricksy like that!