“Making People Walk the Plank or Loving People as They Are?”
You gotta love people as they are, not as they aren’t. If you love people as they aren’t, you aren’t. That is, you aren’t loving them.
I read a story today as part of my addiction recovery work. The story compared recovery to sailing. People were setting sail for the Island of Serenity onboard a ship named “Recovery.”
It was a good analogy, but I got off-course—of course. I said to myself, being cooped up on a small ship with a bunch of selfish, obsessive, compulsive people—yep! That sounds like recovery!
In fact, it sounds like the church, family, my softball league, my new chess club, and every other group of which I’ve ever been a member. If you put two or more people together in anything for any reason, then you have two or more selfish people. The closer the proximity the more that selfishness will wear on everyone.
There is only one person on the ship that I can do much about, and that is me. The others, I have to learn to put up with. Putting up with others isn’t the same as loving them, but putting up with them is a necessary precondition for loving them.
So, before you and I make anyone walk the plank, we might want to remember that we need all the crew members if we are to reach our common destination. It might help also to reflect on the fact that there are many times when others have wanted us to walk the plank.
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