Ten years ago I attended my first local RWA conference.

I knew no one!

But an agent I’d been emailing with was to be in attendance and I would not miss this chance to meet her.

So in one fell swoop, I joined RWA, the local chapter, and plopped down the money for the conference. A pretty big chunk of change.

But at the moment, money meant nothing, just a means to achieve the dream.

I was working full time as a software project manager so we had some money to spare, not a lot, but using it to pave my way to meet this agent seemed like money well spent.

Once at the conference, I introduced myself to folks, started the ole networking, but all along, kept my eye out for this agent.

I asked if anyone had seen her? Had she arrived yet?

I found the conference coordinators and managed an appointment on this agent’s calendar.

But by the time we sat down to dinner, I’d not found the object of my intention.

Some of the folks I’d just met invited me to sit with them. They flagged me over. “Sit with us.”

I was grateful and accepted their kindness.

As soon as I sat, the discussion around the table changed. They started counting heads, naming off names.

And within two minutes, I was asked to get up and leave.

They hadn’t saved enough places for their friends. Whose company they apparently preferred to mine.

I got up. Found another table and enjoyed my dinner.

Was I hurt or offended I’d been asked to leave?

No!!! Because those women were superfluous to my goal. I was there to meet with an agent.

So I remained determined.

And in truth, they weren’t rude on purpose. Just careless and maybe a bit callous.

When the keynote speaker, the fabulous Debbie Macomber, got up to speak, she shared her publishing journey and pointed to the back of the room, declaring that the first editor who bought her book was in the house.

Surprise, surprise, it was the agent I was seeking.

I arched out of my chair to see her. Where? Where?

This was ’04 and I didn’t have Twitter or Facebook to aid me with a picture. I didn’t even know what this agent looked like.

As soon as dinner ended, I made a beeline to “that part of the room.”

Nothing would deter me.

Was I nervous? Yes. Was I determined? You bet. And even being a dinner table reject couldn’t knock my confidence.

I met with the agent that night and again the next day.

She signed me a month later.

For me that small local, beach side conference will always be glorious. A success.

Forget I was treated rudely. Or that no one seemed to want to be my friend.

I met the one person I cared to meet. I could not be offended.

Oh, how I am now determined to live before the Lord in such a way.

Song of Solomon 3:3-4

3 “The watchmen who make the rounds in the city found me,
And I said, ‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?’
4 “Scarcely had I left them
When I found him whom my soul loves;
I held on to him and would not let him go.”

The Bride is determined to find the one she loves.

She is asking the Watchmen, i.e., the people at the conference, the people at church, the Believers, “Where is the one I love!?”

And when she found him, she refused to let go.

“Do to me what you will, I’m not letting go of Jesus.”

If I could translate my determination to meet that agent to my spiritual life, how much more free and joyful my heart would be!

The Bride is so driven, that even when the watchmen find her again in chapter five and wound her, she won’t relent.

7 “The watchmen who make the rounds in the city found me,
They struck me and wounded me;
The guardsmen of the walls took away my shawl from me.
8 “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
If you find my beloved,
As to what you will tell him:
For I am lovesick.”

Are we so love sick, hungry for a deeper encounter with Jesus that we will not care we are wounded by our brethren? By the world? That we will not let ourselves be offended?

This Bride is an example to us all how to pursue Him in love and cast off the restraint of our own hearts.

Being offended serves nothing and no one. We end up hard hearted, bitter, becoming the very thing we loath.

We become Pharisees. The ones standing by the robes cheering at Stephen’s stoning, feeling righteous and proud, a zealot for God.

When in fact, we are dull of heart and hearing, and what Jesus called “White washed tombstones.” We are lost, sick and poor.

We have everything we need in us to live righteous and Godly. We have the Holy Spirit.

Don’t deny His power and work in you to grow in love and grace and peace, to enter the Lord and be changed.

Do not be offended. Cover it in love.

“Let love abound in our hearts more and more with all knowledge and discernment so we approve the things that are excellent.” Paul to the Philippians.

Paul to us.

Have you had to work through offense? How did it go?

 

[Tweet “Love Covers Offense by @rachelhauck”]