I'd like to invite you to think back a few years. Let's say a decade.
The year is 2011. You may have lived in a different place, driven a different car, attended a different school and/or church. Your midsection was probably a little thinner and your hair a little thicker. Your face had fewer wrinkles and your energy level was a bit higher. Your family probably had a different dimension--you were living at home and are now on your own, or your kids were at home and now they're gone (mostly or moved out).
A lot can happen in 10 years.
On the inside, too.
If you are walking with Jesus, there's a high likelihood that you are more forgiving, more patient, more kind, more... well, more like Jesus.
So 10 years is easy to see, right? Just look at a picture from 10 years ago and you'll know it was a different time. But how about 5? Are you more forgiving, patient, kind, and loving than you were in 2016?
Me too.
And that person you've been struggling to get along with, too.
We tend to give ourselves a ton of credit for good intentions, even when our actions don't line up. And we sometimes see others with a critical spirit for their actions even though we can't see their intentions.
Yet over time, the same God of grace work that's working in your life is at work in theirs too. Maybe even more than in yours. Maybe a lot more.
And grace works from the inside out.
So while you and I have been critical of their actions, our loving Father has been patiently, gently forming the likeness of Jesus in them.
This is the beauty of grace. What He's been doing in you, He's been doing in others. And what He's been doing in others, He's been doing in you. Faithfully. Consistently.
That means the folks who used to be hard to love may have gotten easier to love. Those you may have struggled to trust might be exceedingly trustworthy now. Not to mention that you are now better at loving, better at trusting.
This is one of the great beauties of Christian community!
Anyone you may have written off, God never did.
Maybe it's time to give them a second chance. Look on them with your more-Christlike-eyes and risk that they may be doing the same.
This could change everything.