Outcomes

Sometimes, just occasionally, and often on queue, messages have unintended consequences.  The message is often just a fuller, more complete, and understandable way of seeing a picture of what is going on, but that doesn’t make it any easier to accept.  The result of the message goes against logic, intent, and desire.  Yet the outcome is the outcome.
 
I may be making a big deal out of something occurring frequently, yet I think it is a fact of life that we often have trouble dealing with.  I see others and find myself rejecting the message because I do not want to accept the reality of what is already factual.  The result is an outcome that the communicator often did not intent, my withdrawal and rejection of this part of life.  Because I know the truth I no longer want to be part of this path.
 
If the choice to leave or reject is made with a full and open mind then I respect the person’s freedom to make a decision.  At least a decision has been taken.  Far too often there are those who withdraw from society without ever having made a conscious choice, life just seemed to drag them along.  When decisions are taken in full knowledge it is the exercise of a God given ability, gift, and right.  However just because we have this right doesn’t mean that others need be happy; sadness can accompany the unintended outcome.
 
Today I sit down with someone who carries a perception from a long time ago.  I am going to deliver a message that I hope is well received.  Whatever the outcome I know that I am wiling to live with the truth because it is a truth filled with compassion, mercy, and acceptance.  I know that in times past when Jesus delivered a truth filled with the same ingredients “a lot of his disciples left.  They no longer wanted to be associated with him.”  (John 6.66) 
 
We have the same choice; with God and each other.
 
I pray yesterday’s rejection isn’t the record of today’s events.