Theology, Politics & Other Musings

I saw a great post over at Andy Naselli’s blog which you should read.

He gives a list from DA Carson’s book, Love in Hard Places, of people who can be hard to love.  I’ve copied and pasted it here for you, but the original post is worth a read.

1. an obstreperous deacon or warden or bishop;
2. a truly revolting relative;
3. an employee or employer who specializes in insensitivity, rudeness, and general arrogance;
4. a business competitor more unscrupulous, not to say more profitable, than you are;
5. the teenager whose boorishness is exceeded only by his or her unkemptness;
6. the elderly duffers who persist in making the same querulous demands whenever you are in a hurry;
7. the teachers who are so intoxicated by their own learning that they forget they are first of all called to teach students, not a subject;
8. the students so impressed by their own ability or (if they come from certain cultures) so terrified by the shame of a low grade that they whine and wheedle for an “A” they have not earned;
9. people with whom you have differed on some point of principle who take all differences in a deeply personal way and who nurture bitterness for decades, stroking their own self-righteousness and offended egos as they go;
10. insecure little people who resent and try to tear down those who are even marginally more competent than they;
11. the many who lust for power and call it principle;
12. the arrogant who are convinced of their own brilliance and of the stupidity of everyone else.

What was the behavior of my savior towards His various relatives?

I find that he paid an inviolate respect unto his parents.  And he took singular care for the relief and comfort of the person that was more than in the eye of the law one of them.
He had brothers, whose bad carriage towards him for diverse years he bore with patience; and he never gave over, until they were brought home unto God.
He had kinsmen whom he took into a most intimate communion with him, and qualified them for great enjoyments in and services to the kingdom of God.
For the direction of my behavior towards my consort, I often, often, think, “How is the church treated by her Savior?”
I begged help of him to “go and do likewise.”

–Cotton Mather, Personal Diary, November 1718

Slide your cursor over each of the pics for a Before & After look at the different areas hit by the tsunami.