A couple weeks ago at church the Pastor started is message with a prompt. He opened telling us that the most talked about emotion in the Bible is Love. Makes sense. He questioned the congregation with "What do you think the second most talked about emotion is?" and prompted us to ask those around us. I asked my friends to the left and they thought maybe jealousy, my thoughts were either anger or sadness. So, I turn around and asked the elderly lady sitting behind me what she thought. She didn't know and asked me "what do you think?", excited to share I told her "sadness". Confident in my response. The Pastor called us back to attention. He gave the answer to the question... which was Regret. The sermon he preached was on Matthew 5: 38-48.. you know love your enemy, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who use you and persecute you.Take home: don't regret tiffs you may have with others or yourself... instead resolve them. (Ask forgiveness... forgive)
At the end we took communion, sang a worship song, the Pastor prayed. A nice church service. Before we sang our last worship song the little lady from behind me gently grabs my arm and asks me " what was the first emotion the Pastor said at the beginning?", I told her " Love", she looks at me with a serious face and says " it makes sense then why you said sex." I looked at her processing what she said, half thinking this lady just said sex in church and then wondering what she must think about me for saying sex in church. I look at her seriously and say " Oh no, ma'am, I said Sadness." We both start smiling and then laughing, extremely amused by the whole miss-communication. The last worship song plays and at the end of service the lady and I exchange names and a genial agreement that we will not forget each other.
I left church that evening amused by how often we must say things that others interpret wrongly either because of bad hearing, words being taken out of context, or just too much background noise. I was glad the lady was not too prideful, fearful, or shy in this situation to clarify. She asked a context question that she had missed and by doing so found out she hadn't heard what I said either. In the end we formed a bond based on miss-communication and walked away a little more joyful for it.
Resolve. Clarify. Communicate.
