In his book, 12 Rules for Life, Jordan B. Peterson points out that it is not easy to live with healthy people. The reason is a good, healthy person is an ideal, hence, it requires strength and courage to be near such a person. Simply put it behooves us to have humility to be near a healthy person. It’s like standing in front of a mirror and seeing who we are; healthy people show us who we really are.

In the same way we might not like to be near godly people. Being near them requires humility and courage because we get to see who we really are. And we might not like what we see. It is no wonder that we often run from those who lead a godly life. We do not want to see what we don’t like to see. And that is what godly people do to us, even though they may not even want to do that.

God brings different people to our paths for a lot of reasons; one of them is for us to see who we are. King Saul should have benefited from David because David was not only a healthy individual, but he was also a godly man. Living near David should have given Saul a clear picture of who he was and driven him to grow to be a better man. Unfortunately, Saul did not seize the opportunity for growth; on the contrary, he tried to squash David. The same we can say about Cain. Instead of repenting, he resorted to killing Abel.

God uses a variety of ways to call us to repentance and growth and He gives us plenty of opportunity. Whether or not we make full use of the opportunity depends on one factor, as pointed out by Jordan Peterson, humility and courage. We, who are not humble, and we who have little courage to confront our own vices, will usually waste the opportunity given to us. The end is often tragic, as we can see in the lives of Cain and Saul. So, when God brings healthy and godly persons into our lives, welcome them, and thank God for them.

Pastor Paul