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Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who was executed for his opposition to the Nazi party wrote these powerful words from a concentration camp.

He said...."Nothing that we despise in the other man is entirely absent from ourselves. We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer. The only profitable relationship to others -- and especially to our weaker brethren -- is one of love, and that means the will to hold fellowship with them. God himself did not despise humanity, but became man for men's sake." Letters and Papers from Prison

In solitude, he wrote about the people that kept watch over him. Even those who treated him with contempt and hatred.

I first read Bonhoeffer in college and then again several years later. His writings are profoundly simply. Provocatively bland. Straightforward, able to pierce callous hearts and minds.

Let me suggest a couple of guidelines that bombard my mind...

God is calling me to treat everyone the same as He treats me.

God is calling me to respond to everyone with the same measure of grace that He applied in my life.

God is calling me to step into people's stories in the same way He stepped into mine.

I must admit, life is a lot simpler, cleaner and easier if I live life by my rules.

But it is a lot more interesting if I choose to live by his Story.

What story is unfolding in your life?