You know the kind that rub you raw and make you bleed a bit.
Sometimes people just rub you the wrong way perhaps rubbing so deeply that it hurts. Come on...I know you have few like that in your life! Face it, they're out there! (Hey, sometimes those sandpaper people can even be us!) We try to change them, run from them, and ignore them. But it never works in our own strength. God always has a purpose...so He sends these people into our lives for His purposeful plan of finely sanding our abrasive hearts to be more like His.
Sometimes these sandpaper people quickly stroll through my life while other times they park for a bit in my heart waiting for the fog to lift. This month a sandpaper person stuck around like glue! I just couldn't get the point across to this sandpaper person that his properties don't include glue but rather just rough paper to finely smooth the corners of my heart. But I truly believe this sandpaper person came not only to refine my heart's response but to show me that I needed to once again face a fear.
Facing a fear means healing from that fear. It's similar to any other kind of healing. You have to open the wound, clean it out, apply the proper healing agent (God), and give it the proper amount of time to heal. Healing doesn't come from the absence of fear, but rather knowing what to do with it when it happens. We are human. We are not God, we will experience the emotion of fear or insecurity, but we do not stay there or go to the wrong places to find healing and comfort...we use those circumstances to draw us deeper into our relationship with the Lord.
Knowing this logically doesn't make it any easier. But rather we can rejoice...when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation (Romans 5:3-4).
Scary business sometimes....yes, I know. T-R-U-S-T. Yep, it takes a great deal of trust and courage to follow the Lord. BUT, remember courage is not the absence of that fear... it's moving forward in spite of your fear.
Thank you Lord for using these sandpaper people in my life as catalysts through which you lovingly upset my life and redirect my footsteps for Your plan.
