My Choice on How To React
If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat;
And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;
For so you will heap coals of fire on his head,
And the Lord will reward you.
Proverbs 25: 21-22
You may recall my last devotional was about the Lord answering my mail a couple of weeks ago after a run-in with my neighbor at an HOA board meeting. This neighbor, whom I’ll call Karen, was quite upset with my statement that her strong personality made our HOA board meetings challenging for me. She did not accept my apology and I grappled with how to rectify the situation, knowing that anything I might say could be used against me later on, or wouldn’t be accepted, or whatever other Chicken Little concept I could come up with. Emails since that encounter among the five of us, as board members, had been civil. One such email from Karen asked me if I had an extra can of the fence stains we’d used to paint the common fence, and if so, could I leave it on her front porch one of the nights. I told her that I’d be happy to, and was hoping to be able to do it when I returned home from our prayer meeting on Thursday evening <shameless plug: we meet at 7:00 p.m. every Thursday in the Fellowship Hall. Please join us!>. Unfortunately (for me), I was home before the prayer meeting and in front of my house putting items in the recycling or compost bin when I saw Karen down the street, walking her dogs and heading for her house. Since I’d figured I’d been spotted, I got the paint out of my garage and walked to her house (just two houses down from mine), reaching her front porch as she got to her front door. She brought the dogs in and then SLAMMED the front door, about five feet ahead of me. Now lest someone think that she didn’t see me, I know that she did. She slammed the door almost literally in my face. I know that it wasn’t an oversight because the door slammed. As I stood there stunned, because such a thing has never happened to me, I knew that I had a choice on how I was going to react. And surprisingly, I started to chuckle. In that split second, I saw her as how she really was: a petty woman whose immaturity and bitterness combined to make her a sad shell of a person. I learned three valuable lessons in that suspended moment in time: first, that while I had it in my power to get angry at her treatment of me, I could choose to how to respond; that through my journey in spiritual discipline and maturity, the Holy Spirit could allow me to see her how she truly was, as a person, as one of God’s creations, and not the intimidating creature I’d made her up to be in my mind; and lastly, that leaning into that spiritual journey, I could indeed experience that seemingly elusive fruit of the Spirit I’d often grappled with: self-control.
I walked away from Karen’s house, still chuckling, and apparently went to the prayer meeting with a silly grin on my face, virtually beaming at this whole experience. I’ve never been so cool, so collected, and I was quite pleased with the work that the Lord did in me that evening. Now please note, lest you think I’ve broken my arm patting myself on the back for having such a mature reaction: I have yet to walk over to her house and ask her if she knows Jesus. I have yet to heap coals on her head by killing her with proverbial kindness. I can’t necessarily affirm that I know without a doubt that our next interaction will involve us holding hands and singing Kum Ba Yah and the “I’d like to teach the world to sing” Coca-Cola song (actually, I can probably guarantee that won’t happen, but you get my drift). In fact, I cannot declare right now that I will not dread our next HOA board meeting. I am, however, armed with this experience and it’s a fantastic start. And I attribute it all to Him!
Prayer Requests
· For our government leaders, at all levels, as we are called to do
· For those who struggling with depression and other seemingly unseen-at-the-surface illnesses
· Praise for the finally cooler weather
· For us to continually seek His will for our lives
I have to admit that for at least a day after the incident, the thought of what Karen did would come to mind, and I’d shake my head at it, disarming the potential the thought had for drudging up a negative attitude towards Karen and letting it fester. I acknowledged the power of indulging in the little hurts, barbs, and arrows, and in letting the enemy win, and decided otherwise. God be praised for His influence, example, and working on me!
Quotes
“You can be sure, the Holy Spirit never enters a man and lets him live like the world.” – A.W. Tozer
“God never said the weapons wouldn’t form; He said they wouldn’t prosper.”