Pet Peeves

This week I've heard or used the term "pet peeve" several times.  I'm not sure if this means that I, along with all the other people around me, are particularly annoyed this week or if it's just a coincidence.  And as I have listened to others talk about this subject I have come to a realization: usually the issue is not the pet peeve itself, but what that pet peeve represents to the person.
For example: cracking your gum.  This is a pet peeve for many....and something I have been training myself not to do in order to avoid the wrath of anyone finding it particularly annoying.  To the person with this as a pet peeve, cracking my gum really MEANS something.  It is communicating to them that I am so completely wrapped up in my own world that I do not care enough to think of others.  The noise may be bothersome, but the fact that I don't care makes it infinitely more annoying.
Or what about hygiene?  Is it the odor we find so disgusting?  Or could it be what that represents that seems so annoying?  Last week I was at a student's wrestling match and I was reminded that young teenage boys have not fully mastered the art of using deodorant or odor eaters.  And while the smell put me off a bit, I just laughed to myself and thought, "someday they'll figure it out."  But when I'm in an elevator with a grown adult and the same odor lingers up to my nose, it is a different reaction entirely.  What is being communicated is not adolescent ignorance, rather, it is a lack of concern for themselves and others.
Now I know this isn't always the case with every time someone cracks their gum or forgets to use something strong enough for a man but made for a woman.  Sometimes, people just forget.  But the point I'm trying to make is that pet peeves rarely annoy us just because of what they are....it's what they represent that we tend to find so disturbing.
The last few weeks in youth group I have revealed to the students some of my "pet peeves" in the Church. One of them is "Welcome to the house of God."  I told the students I would give them my car if they could find anywhere in the Bible after Jesus's resurrection that the dwelling place of God was in a building of any kind.  I felt secure in making this bet because it isn't in there.  The dwelling place of God ceases to be in a building and instead dwells in us from that point on.  We become the temple of the Holy Spirit, not the building.  That phrase is a pet peeve of mine because it sends the message that the only place someone can encounter God is in a church building and that is completely false!  Burn the building down and we are still the Church....the presence of God still dwells in us!  This drives me crazy!!!
But when I listen to the folks who usually say this, I find a completely different meaning to that phrase.  Some of them have made incredible sacrifices to bring that building into existence.  They have seen God do amazing things in the lives of people in that building.  They have seen their children baptized and married in that building and watched them take communion for the very first time in that seat.  And perhaps they were there the day the building was completed and they prayed prayers to dedicate this chunk of earth and the construction to the Lord.  In their mind....this building belongs to God and is set apart for His use.  In that sense it is kind of "sacred."
This phrase still drives me crazy.  I will still fight tooth and nail that I'm right.  And I do still worry that if we put too much emphasis on the building we will miss a MAJOR point of what it means to be the Church of Jesus Christ.  But when I listen to the meaning others have behind this statement, I am far more apt to extend grace and discover the value my brother or sister has placed here.  And I realize that my emphasis on being "right" can keep me from real relationship with the Body....the very thing I was trying to protect.