Grade 9 math class.  The subject was never my strong suit, and I was slightly nervous as I sat down next to my friends on the first day while our teacher introduced himself to us.  It didn’t take long until we discovered our teacher to be a short-tempered man who often seemed aloof as he gazed out the window during our individual work time.

One day I whispered to my friend to borrow and eraser, and our teacher thought I was trying to cheat.  He exploded.  The phrase that almost brought tears to my eyes was, “you’ll never amount to anything in this class or in this school!”  Out of spite, I was determined to prove him wrong.  I worked harder in his class than any other math class in my school history, and received the highest mark in the class that year.  “So there,” I thought.

The following semester our math teacher did not return to school.  I found out his son had died in a car accident.  Jesus worked on my heart of stone towards this man, and I decided to hunt down his address and send him a card.  The following semester he was back at school, and I remember our first interaction like it was yesterday.  He came up to me in the hall, and with tears in his eyes he placed his hand on my shoulder and simply said, “thank you Michelle.”  Every bit of bitterness I still had towards him vanished in that moment.  Later I found out that he had lost another son before I had attended his class.  Oh how I had misunderstood this man.  When I graduated from high school, I stayed in touch through letters.  Our letters often discussed faith, pain, and God, and I started to see that I was perhaps the only Christ-follower he knew as a friend.

Two years ago I had the privilege of having him and his wife in attendance at my wedding.  A man I hated in grade 9 had made it on our guest list of loved ones 7 years later.

I have often wondered what would have happened if I didn’t follow God’s leading in sending that card.  As Christ-followers we are to be set apart.  We should be experts at extending grace to difficult people.  Sometimes I think I was way better at this in high school, and need Jesus desperately to keep my heart compassionate and gracious on a daily basis.  If we don’t love difficult people, who will?

Is there is a difficult person in your life right now?  How are you extending Jesus’ grace to them?

Michelle