By Verna Davis
Ever notice how “helpful” some people are when you’ve lost something? Say you can’t find your keys or your cell phone or a piece of paper with important information written on it. You’ve looked and looked and looked. Then, some considerate soul approaches, looks over shoulder and asks, “Do you need some help?” After you explain the obvious, that yes, you do need help finding something you’ve lost, this oh-so-not-very-helpful person asks, “Well, where were you when you had it last?” Well, good grief. If you knew that, would it be lost in the first place? I don’t know about you, but things like that really bother me.
Don’t forget the times I let my temper get the best of me. It usually happens when my husband and I disagree about something, and I tend to get a bit excited (OK, and a bit heated, too) in defending my point of view. Doug will touch my hand and tell me to calm down. Gggrrrrr! If it weren’t for him getting me riled up in the first place, I wouldn’t have to calm down, now, would I? It really bothers me when that happens.
It bothered me when people told me that in order to understand my enemy, I needed to walk a mile in his shoes. Until one day my grandfather told me that it was good to walk a mile in your enemy’s shoes. That way you’d be a mile away from your enemy and you’d have a new pair of shoes, too.
Other things tend to bother me, too. Things like trying to watch a movie while sitting behind a tall person with a big head. Or being around people who unconsciously make the same noises as my coffee maker. Or being in the slow cashier’s line. Or being stuck driving behind all the slow traffic in the fast lane. It all makes me wonder: Why can’t people be more like me, anyway?
But what really bothers me is the realization that I have no control over anyone’s behavior but my own. It is not my responsibility to be the boss, to make sure that everyone does what everyone is supposed to do when it is supposed to get done. Nor is it my duty to enforce the rules and dictate which rules should be adhered to the strongest. I am not in charge of anyone’s life. If I tried, I would be bossy, angry, critical, and no fun at all to be around.
What is my responsibility toward others? Galatians 5:14-15 says, “The entire law is summed up in a single command; ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”
Watching a bunch of Christians who don’t really love each other try to work together while busy complaining, griping, and irritating each other is nasty business. I don’t know about you, but it really bothers me when that happens.
“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins,” (1 Peter 4:8).
Verna Davis may be reached at VrdSpeaks@
yahoo.com.
