The Cycle of Offense

II Timothy 2:24

And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient.

 

We live in a world that is more full of strife than it ever has been. It seems that people are so full of anger. They are angry about things that they can not control. Life has a way of being merciless. It has well been noted that hurting people hurt other people in turn. When we are angry we can quickly spill our anger out onto someone else without realizing what we are doing. That person then carries the anger inside until the time is right to spew it out onto someone else. The cycle of offense then continues ...

 

I was in a restaurant last night where the service was pretty terrible. As we approached the restaurant our server of choice was walking up the road away from the restaurant. I don't know if she quit or what. The young lady that was serving us was having a difficult time. The people at our table kept having to ask for the rest of their food; The orders came out with items missing.  You get the picture.

 

I realized at one point that I could either create a scene or be kind. I asked the server if she was doing alright. Her response was "no" with a voice that was kind but very overwhelmed. She told me that a waitress had left and they were very short handed.  I felt my heart go out to her. Perhaps it was her fault that the food was wrong. Perhaps it was the managers fault or the cooks fault. Perhaps it was just a bad night. I don't know. But I realized that I had a choice to either make this young lady's night better or worse. We tried to be as kind as possible and eventually she got the food right. When we left we told her that she did a great job and we tried to leave a good tip.

 

The service wasn't the best but she was doing her best.  I would rather she went home feeling good about herself than even more disgusted because I was rude to her. I'm not patting myself on the back. There are plenty of times when I have not been near as gracious as I should have in similar situations. But I have asked God to help me learn to be more patient. "For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you". (Matthew 7:2)

 

Lord, help us to be more caring and not so quick to strive. The world needs all the love we can give. In Jesus name, Amen.  

 

Graciously,

 

Pastor Jones