Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and the Father of compassion
and the God of all comfort, who comforts us
in all our troubles, so that we can comfort
those in any trouble with the comfort we
ourselves have received from God.
(2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
Well, it started out innocently enough. A passing twinge of resentment at an e-mail that failed to thank me for something I had done--not even an acknowledgement of it. But then that was par for the course where this person was concerned--and others too. And now the twinge became more than a passing one as I started thinking about other people I had sent things to who had failed to acknowledge receiving them either.
At this point I decided I had better get back to work before my thoughts became totally unbridled. But that was not to be. The Internet was down, and a little demon perched himself on my shoulder, gleefully pushing buttons that filled my mind with hurtful memories from the past. As each one resurfaced, it triggered a bunch more, and soon I was partying with anger and resentment at all the wrongs done to me (both real and imagined) from as far back as the day I was born and disappointed my mother by being a girl instead of the boy she had hoped for.
Things were starting to get a bit out of hand, when I was rescued by an unexpected phone call from a good friend. By the time I got off the phone, the Internet was back up and I decided to check out some blogs before getting back to work.
One friend's post piqued my interest in another one posted on SmallGreenRiver's blog. As I scrolled down, the header Bam Bam caught my attention and I started to read it--including the comments. What was left of my pity party came to an abrupt end, as I shamefully realized how petty it had been.
Hurting people hurt people, but God can turn it around for good and for his glory. Like Joseph said to his brothers, You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done..." (Genesis 50:20)
So thank you, James, for not deleting those comments, devastatingly painful as they must have been for you to read. If you had, the Lord could never have used them to shock me back to reality. And who knows how many other folks he may have ministered to through them as well.
I get my feelings hurt too, but find it helpful to remember that most of the time people do not mean to be hurtful, it is just how we perceive it. For every person that hurts my feelings through thoughtlessness, I am sure I unintentionally do the same to some one else and will never even know. I guess that is where praying the forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us can be uplifting.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, hope your day was a little more optimistic today after your scrabble victory. I have been on a losing streak. They killed me in rummy last night.
Thanks for acknowledging the post Sandy. In fact, I was really trying to comment on the basically rotten string of things I had to deal with over that couple of weeks. My brothers and sisters obliged by adding their pokes-in-the-eyes as if to add to the string. I thought about deleting them, but then for some unknown reason left them. I know why now. God Bless you, and thanks. James
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