Beneath the Surface

[bluidkiti]

Beneath the Surface

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law (Gal.5:22-23).

You have heard the old saying, "A watched pot never boils." Few of us would sit still long enough to watch the water come to a boil after we have just turned on the heat. But we know that as the heat is applied that the pot will get hot. And we know that as the pot gets hot, the water will eventually boil. Few of us show any concern as to the whole process, we are just watching for the bubbles on the surface.
In Matthew 12:33, Jesus tells us that a tree is known by it's fruit. The fruit is evidence of what is happening on the inside of the tree. Bad fruit indicates a problem in the tree. But perhaps only some of the fruit is bad--perhaps only on one branch. What do you do? You prune the tree so that the bad is removed and the good is nourished.
Have you ever been around someone who's pot is boiling over. Maybe it was someone close to you who one day just blew up at you for no apparent reason. Maybe this someone seemed hateful, snotty or rude, or made some sort of hurtful remark. Whatever it was--it was some pretty rotten fruit.
Now maybe this person was a Christian brother or sister and what he/she did seemed completely out of character. What do we do about it? Our natural reaction is often to throw up the walls of defense. This person snaps at me for no reason so naturally I snap back. Now who's fruit is bad? This other person may have something deep beneath his behavior or maybe just a bad day, but what about me? I may have been having a great day, but "There's no way I'll put up with someone treating me like that--how dare he!"
It seems that just like with a pot of boiling water, we only respond to the bubbles. The fact that there is a lot of heat beneath the bubbles does not seem to interest us. And instead of doing something to reduce the heat--we often add fuel to the fire.
Good people sometimes treat you poorly. A response with spiritual fruits (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance) rather than a hasty retaliation, can go a long way to reducing the heat a person is feeling from what's beneath the surface. We do not respond by overlooking their behavior, but by underlooking it. That is to say, we recognize the behavior as the bubbles on the surface of a deeper problem. We can then see more clearly to help them find the cause, and with the love of God, help the person to deal with it.
If someone has treated you poorly, consider what's beneath his/her actions. Maybe it's just a bad day or maybe worse, but it's not likely to be that he/she is treating you badly just for kicks. Take yourself out of the picture and find a way to pray for the person, love him/her, and minister to him/her to help them through the process.

Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye (Luke 6:42).

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