I have a number of pet peeves, and as I’ve grown older I seem to have even more. I’m turning into an old curmudgeon. Here are a few of them. (1) I am amazed, and bothered, by all the people who buy cars without turn signals. (2) As a retired math teacher, I feel that my profession has failed; there are lots of people that can’t count. This is especially evident at the 20-item-or-less checkout lane at Walmart. (3) Another failing of our educational system is that in kindergarten many children never learned to color between the lines. You can tell this because as adults they park their cars straddling the lines and take up two parking spaces. (4) There has been a lot in the news about self-driving cars. This technology is in its infancy, but apparently many think it has been perfected for shopping carts and leave them randomly in the parking lots. Note that each of these peeves is the result of another person’s action.

Jesus commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and then He implies that everyone is our neighbor. He even tells us to love our enemies. Does that mean that we have to love those responsible for our pet peeves? Does that mean I have to love that woman in the white Lexus who left her shopping cart smack-dab in the middle of the space I was starting to pull into, which was the only free space in sight? The answer is clear; He does. It’s hard, at least for me. The four peeves I mentioned are recurring and are like thorns in my side, constantly pricking me.

In 2 Corinthians Paul confesses to having a thorn in his flesh. We don’t know what it was, but Paul admits to the weakness and pleaded to the Lord to remove it. Instead, the Lord told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul says that he delights in his weakness, because then Christ’s power can rest in him. By myself I probably can’t bring myself to love those whose acts peeve me, but by admitting my weakness and accepting Christ’s power in me, it becomes possible.

Paul’s experience with his thorn is described in 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. Please read this moving passage and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Jim