It happens to everyone, your day is going totally awesome
and then someone does something really crazy that puts you into a tailspin! I
don’t live for drama trust me but on occasion I’m around people whose soul
purpose in life seems to be causing headaches. Last night I had a text from a
teen that is trying hard to do the right thing but made some poor choices that
put me on the outside. We were out last night at a dinner celebration for a
good friend whose church just hired an assistant pastor to help him and bless
the church. This teen friend calls with an emergency that was really pushing
the envelope. Yes, I was a little upset that this person didn’t apologize over
something that had happened the last time we had talked.
As I’m watching a text unfold I’m getting pushed to the edge
because it appears as if I’m the only person on the face of the planet who is
cable of coming to their rescue when the world around them collapses. I ask the
obvious questions about where is everyone else, i.e. dad, etc…. The response is
they don’t help me in circumstances like this. So my quandary, which wasn’t
easy, was deciding whether I would get up really early to drive this individual
30 minutes to work, which equates to me driving for an hour? I decided to be
gracious and not put this person’s job in jeopardy and take my dog, Freckles,
for a ride in the van before the sun was even close to appearing!
What happens often in life is those who have been on the
receiving end at times for whatever reason decide to attack the hand that had
helped. This happened this last week when someone took a legal action against
me that required me to drive another hour and file a response. As I talked to a
few people I was attempting to put this into perspective so as to not allow my
annoyed feeling to overrule my supposed day off.
I talk often about the fact that we can choose how we
respond to circumstances beyond our control. We can either be reactive, where
we seek to get even, get revenge or figure a way to create havoc for another or
take the higher road and just walk on by without over reacting. I know that
often I do get deep satisfaction for saying something that I shouldn’t or doing
something that is somewhat ‘devilish’ just to poke fun at another. The
difficulty is if I let my annoyed feeling rule my thoughts and feelings and
transfer that to other people and then I end up passing along this sense of
annoyance.
The last thing I want to have happen is for a person to get
away with hurting me multiple times because I can’t let something go.
Forgiveness doesn’t change the offense that took place but releases the power
it has over you before you walk away and decide to have a better day without
that person controlling your feelings and attitude. Yes, today is going to be a
great day regardless of the weather, the traffic or whether someone is out to
get me.
Yes, life does have it’s annoying moments that at times
takes you by surprise but you can do the proverbial making of lemonade when
life throws you a bunch of lemons. Sounds ‘corny’ but it is so true. I love
Jesus’ admonition to give your enemy a glass of cold water or a helping hand! So
I admit to be annoyed today but the great news is that I’m over this heartache!
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