No "kid play"

A neighbor who raises goats has a child’s fort that her animals play on. When I saw it the first time, my mind jumped to an old American idiom,  “Got your goat?” which roughly translates, “Does this irritate you?”
 

Here’s one version of the background.  In the early days of horse-racing (some say the 1700s), some race horses were easily agitated.  Trainers learned that putting a goat in their stalls had a calming effect and, presumably, helped the horses run with focus and speed at the next race.  If someone “got your goat” (stole it), you’d end up with a nervous horse who couldn’t run well when the pressure was on.

The other morning, I found myself praying again about people who “get my goat.”  One way to describe them is through this old quip, “I love mankind.  It’s people I can’t stand.”  Some are hard to love because they’ve turned their backs on Christ. Our world views just don’t mesh, and our conversations are like throwing ping pong balls over the Grand Canyon. Others have considered themselves Christians for years, but are chronically anxious, apathetic, or angry.  This time, I’m bouncing ping pong balls off a wall.

Both have the same result: distracting me from my “race”—“the one for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:14). I find myself praying, “Lord, these people are so hard to live with.”  And then I sense His eyes peering right into my soul,  saying, “Tell me about people who are hard to live with.”  I know who He means: twelve, culled from hundreds.  They doubted, murmured, wanted fame, complained, and just “didn’t get it”--time after time.  Jesus changed that flippant quip about loving people in general to this: “I love mankind. I died for it.”

And that’s why my prayers about “hard-to-love-people” usually end up with confession of my own need of grace.  I still need schooling in behaviors like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

Living out these godly behaviors is no kid play.  Like high-strung race horses,  I'm easily distracted and stubborn.  But I have the difference maker, the Holy Spirit, who helps me keep going when the pressure’s on.  Or, as Paul said:

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other (Gal. 5:25-26).

Got your calming Companion?