God's Sandpaper

Have you ever run into those people that just irritate the dookie out of you? I'm talking the ones that you try your hardest to get along with but there is no way on this side of heaven that you can. They seem to know every button to push on your irritation scale. They know exactly how to get a reaction out of you. They know exactly how to get you to blow your witness every single time.

Maybe they're the ones who are the atheist and are always trying to prove there is no God, and point to every single time you are inconsistent. Maybe they're the ones who claim to be a Christian, and yet don't show it, but send you every Christian thing they can in the email and point out YOUR faults while they are blind to their own faults. Maybe they are nasty to you behind everyone else's back, but then when other people are around, are nice to you. So people think you are the one being petty.

I had a wise friend a long time ago who called these types of people God's Sandpaper. I asked this person why God allowed them to stay among us, ruining our witness, making us blow our witness time and time again, causing people to disbelieve, and just generally wreaking havoc. She told me that even though the Bible warns us (and no, I don't know chapter and verse) that if you test the Lord too long, he will bring you home. I suppose the pre-supposes you are His. So I've comforted myself with the thought that, 1) these people that antagonize me do not belong to Him, even though they profess to, and 2) the Lord knows what He's doing.

Think about what sandpaper does. It shapes things into something else. Usually something very beautiful in the hands of a master craftsman. But something definitely smoother and refined. That is what God is doing to us, when he uses something rough (the person who has no tact and is obtuse) as they rub us the wrong way. Our reaction is what the world is looking at. I've often wondered if God will continue to bring these "sandpaper" people into my life until I learn to deal with them in a way that is pleasing to him?

I'm afraid with my reactions, it may be a long time before I don't have to deal with God's sandpaper people. I have a lot to learn yet. I still let them get to me. Here's praying that y'all deal with them better than I do.

Lori Ann Smith