OH TO BE MORE LIKE JESUS...

...who when He was betrayed and Peter tried to defend him by striking the servant of the high priest and cutting off his ear said, "Put your sword in its place.  ...do you think that I cannot now pray to my Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?  How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus (Matthew 26:52-54)?"  And so "He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth (Isaiah 53:7)."

The incident that caused me such indignity and outrage today was minor by comparison, and yet if I had had even a fraction of a legion of angels at my disposal, I would surely have called them down and wreaked havoc in that store, whose name I will not mention.  Since I couldn't do that, I threatened to write a letter to the local paper.  I would have done anything in my power to inflict some pain.

Of course my outburst did nothing except get me all riled up.  The owner told me to go head and write the letter, and even gave me his name to include, which only enraged me further.  And my question as to whether community minded meant you are all gracious and smiley to customers until you get their money, and then you don't give two hoots about how they're going to get the merchandise out of the store didn't seem to phase him at all either.

I stomped out with one final retort. "I hope you sleep well tonight and like what you see when you look at your face in the mirror in the morning."  Then I raged all the way home, promising myself I would never set foot in that store again, and composing a letter in my head to the editor of the local paper, an article exposing them on FaceBook, and a post on our Mayor's wall, all intended to make the community aware of what truly lay in the hearts of  these supposedly civic-minded folks .

Of course, by the time I got home I had cooled down and decided to limit myself to just this one blog post in which I wouldn't mention any names.  I thought of an e-mail our Bible study teacher, Barb, had sent out to us this morning on humility and how Christ gave up the right to his rights as God when He became man and was willing to assume all the indignity, hurt, and rejection of the world.  He was the only man who ever lived who didn't have to die, and yet He did.  Instead of giving up or walking away from us, He willingly chose to suffer death on the cross to pay for our sins.  Then Barb ended her e-mail by asking us to consider this when we are tempted to withdraw from other Christians.

I wonder if that store owner is a Christian.  He surely didn't act like one.  But then, neither did I.  Just saying.