Not a Good Day

 Good morning!

 Yesterday was not a good day for me.  Oh, I was healthy enough as that goes.  I got my work done, ate well, and generally was comfortable.  But things happened yesterday in my interactions with others that I’m not pleased with.  Evidently, I was not very pleasant to be around some of the time.

I try.  I really try to be at least pleasant around others, especially when things aren’t going as I was hoping or wanting.  However, it’s really easy for me to slip into a sort of blame game or feel slighted when things like this happen.  I know that’s not the right attitude to have, and I find myself constantly working on it with seemingly not much in the way of progress at times coming from the effort.

A couple of cases in point.  I had ordered some printed material from a company I had never used before.  I had set up an account, placed the order, received a confirmation, and waited for the order to arrive.  When it didn’t arrive after a ten day or so wait, I checked PayPal to see if they had been paid.  They had been.  I then contacted the company to ask about my order.

They told me that I had ordered e-material rather than paper, and told me how to access it.  I’m not a big fan of reading books from a computer or my phone, and generally have a distaste for electronic copies of anything.  I checked my order, and sure enough, although the order page had an image of real books, at the top of the page was the disclaimer that it was e-material.

My conversation with customer service by way of email was less than rainbows and unicorns.  I broke a cardinal rule of mine to never respond immediately in a situation such as this but rather wait awhile for things to settle down and I can think more clearly and be more genteel with my conversation.  To complete the story, the customer service people were treated less than well by me in my emails to them, and in spite of that graciously and immediately refunded my payment.

On another note, it is usually easy when driving in Wichita to become irritated by something another driver does.  It could be someone speeding past you thirty miles an hour over the limit, cutting in front of you, failing to use their blinker, not starting out when the light changes to green because they’re texting, or any number of other failures.

Yesterday was especially difficult for me on the road.  I found myself criticizing other drivers rather than driving defensively and giving them the benefit of the doubt.  I really do work on this, and try to keep an even keel when driving, but yesterday was not one of those days.  I’m not a perfect driver myself, and I have no business criticizing others.  I was reminded of the words of Jesus, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”  Well, that certainly applied to me.

So, today, I did a penance of sorts.  I found myself behind a vehicle on Kellogg this morning that was doing 57 miles an hour in the middle lane.  Rather than be irritated that he wasn’t going the limit, I just stayed behind him at a respectable distance and followed him…intentionally…just a few miles an hour under the limit.  He was doing nothing wrong.  Driving 57 miles an hour in the middle lane in a 60 mile limit zone is not unlawful.  It was a good lesson for me to not be in such a hurry…not criticize or make judgments…and not create stress on myself because of such a trivial matter.  The fact that everyone and their horse was passing us on both sides was not something I should be concerned about.  “I have learned to be content,” Paul the Apostle said.  Well, Paul, I’m still learning, and staying behind this gentleman for a few miles was a great example of how I sometimes make myself learn.

Paul, in his Colossian letter, also asks his fellow believers, and I quote here, to  “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.  And let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

He was speaking specifically of creating opportunities to tell the good news of Jesus Christ, but the principle holds for all of our interactions with others.  And I’m afraid I didn’t do very well yesterday with that thing about having my conversation being full of grace.  Even at this age, I’m still learning…still seeking…still refining…still growing.  And I pray you too will act in wisdom, always graceful in your interactions with others.  It’s so desperately needed in today’s world.

 

Blessings,