A Party Pooper?

John 7

There are some people I just prefer not to be around, but circumstances require that we intermingle from time to time. During this time, I know I will need to put on kindness, be slow to speak, and to keep a polite emotional distance. Once, the head custodian told me that a Christmas dinner was being held for all the custodians at a local eat-in pizzeria. This was during the height of the pandemic so that gave me an excuse for opting out. In fact, the Christmas dinner was cancelled on the very day of the dinner because the pizzeria closed due to an employee case of the virus. After I opted out, she used enticement to say that whoever comes will receive a Christmas gift. I still opted out. She acted like she had no idea that I didn’t want to be around them unless I had to be. Any other time through the year they were far from being kind and charitable and were flat-out mean-spirited. The next day, she approached me and said that if I opt-out she would tell the top boss and I could take the matter up with him. I said “O.K.” That conversation never happened.

This verse came to me when thinking about that invitation to join them, “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.” Proverbs 6:16-19

Her invitation didn’t seem too friendly to me. I can understand a little bit of what Jesus is experiencing here, “Therefore, Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.” John 7:6-9 I’m constantly invited to go to the Circleville Pumpkin Show, but no one wants to invite me to go with them. What type of invitation is that? It’s like saying “be there or be square” and then I’m alone in a big crowd!

I am really grateful for the scriptures because they comfort me, inspire me, and makes me feel like I have a friend who really understands me and has been through what I go through. Jesus quenches my thirst. “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. “John 7:37