How flexible are you in the practice of your faith? Is this your highest priority that takes precedence over all your other activities? Could there be anything more important? I told my followers that if they came to give a gift on the altar and remembered that their brother had an issue with them, that they should set their gift aside and go to seek reconciliation with their brother before returning to offer their gift. Have you ever practiced your faith in such a way that inconveniences other people?

I said that my sheep hear my voice. Do you find this comforting? Or are you uncomfortable with the idea of being referred to as a sheep? For outside of the Kingdom of God being compared to a sheep is not considered a compliment. In this context the term implies that one is a mindless follower, with no ability or initiative for independent thought and action. The same concept applies in referring to my followers as children of God for those who have reached adulthood. These are not compliments in the context of the way you relate to other men.

Would you rather be angry or sad? Does it seem to you that anger is more prevalent, and people will admit to it more readily than they do for sadness? Is this true of you too? Have you noticed that anger has a judgmental and self-justifying component? It was someone else that made you angry, and you can articulate your justification for your anger as an accusation against someone else. Sadness may have an underlying cause, but it isn’t something that you can blame on someone else. Yet I said blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Have you heard of grateful alcoholics? These people have emerged from the pain and suffering of their addiction and come out the other side to a larger and more gracious humanity than they would have possessed otherwise. They travelled a path that no one would choose, but the cumulative result was a transformative work in their lives. Perhaps you are not an alcoholic, but you face some other form of suffering and loss in which you see no redemptive purpose. Yet I can work in situations that appear to be impossible.