James 1:19-20
James 1:19-20
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
ARGH, man i can't believe the people at Costco -- and not the employees, but the people that shop there. Today I witnessed some of the rudest behavior ever and it was totally giving me a headache. The first incident of note this one woman was tryign to get by with her shopping cart in an aisle. She easily could have moved to the side to avoid this other woman talking on her cell but no -- she yells out: hey you with the phone move it! Both were middle aged woman. Even tho it didn't happen to me, i was getting pissed. I so wanted to tell that first woman off, but the woman on the phone seemed to take offense for a second and then let it go. Well if she could let it slide, I guess I could too. The second incident happened to me when I was nearing the exit with my mom. A couple of items were slipping from our cart so i paused for <5 seconds to reaarrange them. The guy behind me is like: U CANT STOP IN THE MIDDLE! And his tone isn't one of gentle reminder or a polite excuse me. It's like these precious seconds are worth everything in the world to him. I was thinking argh -- you're tailgating me at COSTCO? Did u not see me rearrange the falling items? I was real real close to telling him off and then cussing him out. There other thing that pisses me off is this little mental test that I make. Ok say I'm 6'3" and black. Are you gonna take that kind of tone with me? Nope, but u feel it's alright to say whatever u want because i'm 5'9" and asian. At the time I was like -- hmm mebbe asians need to create a history of violence so people don't feel so free to speak their minds -- a la Genghis Khan or some such.
So onto the verse. I can tell you I was burning all the way to the car and all the way home. I was like God you really want me to love these people? These are the people you want saved? I suppose in retrospect that it's a good thing I didn't take the $1.50 polish and stick it where his sun don't shine, but it's not really like I was making a godly decision not to. It was more like -- man you really worth the effort? So: slow to anger is what God wants. Hmm well it doesn't say don't be angry at all. Interesting. God knows that we're, well, human. Humans get angry. But yeah I think that I got mad pretty fast and it could have turned ugly had I decided to escalate the situation.
Any comments? How could my response been more like God would want me to be?
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
ARGH, man i can't believe the people at Costco -- and not the employees, but the people that shop there. Today I witnessed some of the rudest behavior ever and it was totally giving me a headache. The first incident of note this one woman was tryign to get by with her shopping cart in an aisle. She easily could have moved to the side to avoid this other woman talking on her cell but no -- she yells out: hey you with the phone move it! Both were middle aged woman. Even tho it didn't happen to me, i was getting pissed. I so wanted to tell that first woman off, but the woman on the phone seemed to take offense for a second and then let it go. Well if she could let it slide, I guess I could too. The second incident happened to me when I was nearing the exit with my mom. A couple of items were slipping from our cart so i paused for <5 seconds to reaarrange them. The guy behind me is like: U CANT STOP IN THE MIDDLE! And his tone isn't one of gentle reminder or a polite excuse me. It's like these precious seconds are worth everything in the world to him. I was thinking argh -- you're tailgating me at COSTCO? Did u not see me rearrange the falling items? I was real real close to telling him off and then cussing him out. There other thing that pisses me off is this little mental test that I make. Ok say I'm 6'3" and black. Are you gonna take that kind of tone with me? Nope, but u feel it's alright to say whatever u want because i'm 5'9" and asian. At the time I was like -- hmm mebbe asians need to create a history of violence so people don't feel so free to speak their minds -- a la Genghis Khan or some such.
So onto the verse. I can tell you I was burning all the way to the car and all the way home. I was like God you really want me to love these people? These are the people you want saved? I suppose in retrospect that it's a good thing I didn't take the $1.50 polish and stick it where his sun don't shine, but it's not really like I was making a godly decision not to. It was more like -- man you really worth the effort? So: slow to anger is what God wants. Hmm well it doesn't say don't be angry at all. Interesting. God knows that we're, well, human. Humans get angry. But yeah I think that I got mad pretty fast and it could have turned ugly had I decided to escalate the situation.
Any comments? How could my response been more like God would want me to be?
3 Comments:
At 12:55 AM, G said…
I'm not sure what the best response would have been, but I know I would probably flashed a mad-dog face at the punk.
But yeah... better to not make a big deal of it. Having a fistfight in Costco in front of your mother would have been ridiculous.
At 5:11 PM, Jon F said…
I may be going off on a tangent here, but here's some scripture.
Matthew 5:43-48
43 You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
My thinking is that God died for all, and loves this uncircumcised Philistine also. However, God does NOT say "go out there and take abuse." He says this
Matthew 5:38-42
38 You have heard that it was said, 'AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.' 39 But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. 40 If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. 41 Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. 42 Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
Regardless of what this may sound like Jesus is not saying to the people "Take abuse from those who abuse you." He is actually saying, "Show them non-violently that what they're doing is wrong."
I've heard it explained as this. In Israel, it was normal to backslap your wife and children. However, a fist was considered assault. So when someone slaps you on your face, turn to him the other cheek, means when he slaps you with his backhand, if he were to come back with the same hand and hit the other side of your face with the same hand, he'd have to make a fist. He'd probably stop and see what he's doing. Show him that it's wrong.
If someone takes your shirt, give them your coat also, so that you go cold out there and they see that they have caused you wrong. They're only asking for your shirt, not everything that you have.
In Ancient Rome, a soldier could take any Jew off the street and cause him to carry his stuff for a mile. However, it was illegal for the soldier to make the Jew go more than a mile with his stuff. Going with him two miles would cause the soldier to do something illegal. So you can guess what happens when the Jew does not want to let go of the soldier's stuff. The soldier would be brought up on charges.
Jesus is NOT saying take stuff and abuse from others. He's saying to show them what is wrong. The person that told me these things said that if charges come, then it would be good to bring them up on charges.
The person who explained this to me was telling me of a story of a Afrikaaner (spelling?) (ie a White South African) during Apatheid. He spit on this woman because she was black. The woman brought her children over and told the man, "Please sir, the children too."
Ghandi used the sermon on the mount to get the British out of India. It worked, because the british were pummeling the protesters. The protesters were non-violent and followed this. They went to the ocean to just make salt, because it was illegal to make salt and the British were arresting and beating the crowds that Ghandi brought with him to make salt. The majority of the Indians were poor, so salt was necessary and buying salt when they could easily make it was ridiculous.
So did Martin Luther King Jr. The civil rights movement used the sermon on the mount. They did not fight back, but took the abuse and used this to bring all of us civil rights.
God has radical views of how to change things. They are so radical because we wouldn't think of doing things in this way. We think of wars, we think of payback. But you must understand that God loves all people. Even those that mistreat us.
Anyway, it is best not to settle things violently. So I'm glad that you didn't have a fistfight in Costco. But if you have the guts to do what Jesus said, then I applaud you for that. Otherwise, I'd say pray for the man, because he probably is lost too like many of the people in America and the world. God does things not in our ways. If He did, then this world would be much better off right now than it is.
But yeah, doing what Jesus says isn't easy, it's radical. Why? Because it goes against everything that we've been taught by this world. It is powerful too, because God knows how to change the world.
Anyway, going back to the first scripture, "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heave; for He caues His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." It's tough to get along with people, but God loves them too, and I would recommend praying about this. God blesses everyone. Even those who do not believe in Him. Why? Because He loves everyone.
Anyway, I don't mean to preach at you, because even I get angry at stupid people. But coming from my viewpoint, I used to be very rude to my parents and people who did not deserve any wrong from me. I changed, because of the love shown to me. I became a better person because of you guys and God.
I'm sure that God knows everything about each person in the world. He knows each one intimately. He knows our evil, and He knows of our good. He's so great that He'll even forgive those who ask for forgiveness. I always hope that I can learn to see people as God sees people. It's impossible to do things exactly as God would do, but not impossible to become more like God and change. That's why I say please pray.
At 11:07 PM, Jon F said…
Anyway, maybe I'm a bit naive, I don't know what the right answer would be to a situation like the one at costco, but I'm glad that you didn't blow up at them. However, sometimes anger can be useful. It's not always negative when used in the right context.
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