I’m in a season of working in reconciliation. I’ve done that for a long time, but it seems to be even more so right now. It’s in marriages, families, and churches. The work is really hard because the hurt and pain is very personal so the emotions are very high. Flight or fight, avoidance or anger are the responses in places of pain. Both ruin relationships. But while the avoidance and anger are present, there is hope. It’s when apathy comes that hope dies.

When there is sustained relational pain, Mary wants Bill (generic names) not just to know, but also to feel, how much she hurts. When Bill believes that Mary is intentional in hurting him, his anger gets savage. It can get overwhelming really fast.

The strategy I follow is to get each to speak their pain, preferably with full emotion, and the other to listen and reflect back. When people feel heard, a major goal is accomplished. The problem is that the second person often listens with denial or even disdain as the first is expressing pain. “It wasn’t like that at all,” is the internal response.

But things get to going well when Bill moves from what’s wrong with Mary to beginning to look at what he has done to damage the relationship. Then Mary feels safer to confess some of her own damaging things. When there’s no safety, Mary’s confession becomes fodder for Bill’s accusations. Mary isn’t about to make herself even more vulnerable in such a situation.

Things begin to go well when Mary begins to express concern for Bill’s pain and Bill can receive that comfort without going into self-protect mode. Then he can reciprocate, feeling safe that she won’t take advantage of his openness to demand more.

One thing I’ve discovered is that people don’t recognize the terrific pain that disrespect or sarcasm cause.  Our culture has lots of stories of the damage anger causes. But there are virtually none for the pain of disrespect. I’m trying to figure some out.

Of course all this is a strange task for me since I have my own failed relationships where there is nothing I can do to promote reconciliation. That is a great sadness, one where much prayer and doing nothing active is the best thing to do, hard as that is. So strange.

On a different note, I have been trying to evict squirrels from my Mt. Tabor house. I blogged my Thanksgiving fall. My still sore leg reminds me to be careful. Yesterday I surveyed the tiny niche beside the chimney where sparrows renew their annual nest. I love the sound of sparrow babies cheeping as parents come with food. Unfortunately, what I saw was the new squirrel chewed entrance to the attic. My ladder wasn’t long enough for safe climbing, so I called my friend Will. He closed up the niche with metal flashing. So neither sparrows nor squirrels have a place. Evil ruins good things.

I am praying for lots of things: reconciliations, Davis house, Christians in Egypt, finances for non-profits, wisdom for leaders, . . .