In a laudable act of entente cordiale between countries once at war, precision engineers sheared their respective ways from Calais and Folkestone to build their underground causeway, meeting in the middle exactly where they should. But how do we fare when folks pick up stones to mock and denounce our every move, rather as Shimei did to David? (2 Samuel 16:5-14) Can we accept, as David himself did at that time that God might have something to say to him, even through this onslaught?

It is so easy to see matters only from our own perspective. Who on earth could dispute the facts or unpick our logic? Surely right is on our side! Or could it be that we have not allowed for this one deeper fact: that the Lord is always at work at both ends!

When people block our way and oppose us, we may well need to fight our way through in prayer, but still we must take care not to seek revenge against those who are hindering us but rather be looking for ways to clear whatever it is that is blocking the pathways of their heart?

So when we are tempted to presume that our assumptions are all correct, we must still beware of maligning all who query our well-rehearsed story. Rather than seeking to prove that we are in the right right right, and that the other is therefore in the wrong wrong wrong – let’s remember this simple refrain that aligns with the heart of the King: The Lord is at work at both ends!

Only He know the hidden hurts and regrets that lie beneath folk’s stoney-faced sternness, the hidden pains that afford Him the chance to send grace upon grace their way – especially if we will but set our hearts to pray more for them – for it is forgiveness that sets free – and it is all but impossible to resent someone who we are praying for.

It’s not too late to adjust our course, and to marvel how willing He is to send His grace to all who will but glance at Him. If this seems a highly unfair and unmerited extravagance to those of us who toil in the snare of our chaffing self-righteousness, are we not in danger of forgetting the heart of the Kingdom of love? If we find ourselves constantly prone to denigrate our denigrators in a furious bid to prove that it is we who are in the right, it is time to remember that ‘judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment,’ (James 2:13) God give us grace to lay down our well-rehearsed tale, and to unfurl afresh this banner sign: ‘The Lord is at work at both ends!

Yes, even now before the situations we are so concerned about are anything like fully resolved, may we choose to respond as Jesus did when He refused to respond in kind to those who hurled their insults at him, but instead ‘entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.’ (1 Pet. 2:23)

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