Do
We Shake The Dust Off?
If people do not welcome you, shake the
dust off your feet when you leave…as a testimony against them.
Luke 9:5
The rift had been widening for two
years when the outright ‘shunning’ took place. What seemed so
unacceptable and painful about the act was that they proclaimed their
still-present love for one-another to other family members, and
wished things had never come to this.
But third-party declarations and
unspoken truth have no power to heal, and each chose not to speak
their true feelings directly, clutching their offenses like security
blankets, their stubborn pride asserting itself in the form of
righteous indignation, even in the face of forfeiting family
relationships.
So on a cold December day, mother and
father were turned away from their child’s home, told their
differences could not be reconciled and they were no longer welcome.
†
With great wounding comes great
pain…and the possibility of thoughtless acts meant to inflict
wounds in retaliation. Sadly, the idiom: ‘Hurting people hurt other
people’ is true. Yet, it need not be. We have a choice to extend
grace, leaving the lines of communication to open, remaining hopeful
that God will have His way in everyone’s hearts, bringing
restoration.
In the worst of circumstances, there is
the temptation to view Jesus’ instruction of, ‘shake the dust
from your feet’ to His Disciples as the vehicle we are to employ in
separating ourselves from the pain. But, good-willed people are as
prone to mistakenly translate, and therefore execute this form of
judgment as are non-believers. And in the process they execute the
hope of reconciliation, and estrange themselves from God’s ability
to speak life into the void.
Though we read three times in the
Gospels of Jesus’ instruction, and are given a literal example in
Acts 13:51, family need never apply to this directive.
We can, when confronted with such
wounding, dig deep enough to let Jesus hold our heart as we suffer
for the sake of others, seeking the reward of future peace and
restoration.
Prayer
“Lord, I hurt in ways
words cannot convey. But I trust that You know how to lead me and my
family back into a loving relationship. I ask for the strength to
extend grace while asking you to remove from me a heart of wounded
judgment. In Jesus’ Name, amen.”
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