Yesterday I fasted... not for a time of undistracted prayer, but because I had a blood test at Mission plaza and needed to skip breakfast (^_^). So I took Abbie at 8:30am and Crown Valley was jam packed like a parking lot! I hope the street widening project won't end up going 'till 2010! So I was frantically looking for the LabCorp bldg among the hundreds of medical structures that somehow popped out in recent months. A guy rolled down his window, drove next to me and pointed at me, "Hey you!! You should walk instead!!!!" and zoomed away.
I was so !#@*#@$!!#$ that someone would be so rude! Obviously no one was going anywhere in that street condition, and I was looking around for the bldg. number, so what's his problem?
After I parked, I strolled with Abbie toward Labcorp, still fuming at the unfriendly stranger. I wanted to curse the living daylights out of him, as I recollected the look in his face. Then I was convicted by the holy spirit (aka: the angel on your right shoulder....) who reminded me that instead of retaliating at his rude remarks, pray buckets of blessings on this guy and drench him!
Why? This guy doesn't deserve it!
But I felt the Lord saying, "Obviously, this guy is angry and anxious, and his health is probably compromised because of it. And his frustration easily spills over to his family, friends and coworkers, so pray for his wife & kids, who suffer more than a stranger like you would. He's probably late to work, and if he's part of the unfortunate 7.5%, he probably doesn't have a job to go to. And the best thing is, YOU were not the one who shot angry words at him!"
So after that, I realized that there is much to be thankful for, and that those who are mean have struggles that we do not know. I learned to 'not show my annoyance at once, but to overlook an offense' (proverbs something...). It's so hard, as anyone can easily explode over a small trigger, thus road rage, domestic, workplace and school violence are all too common. There was an interesting formula I saw back in 2004 that goes like this:
Trigger (hurt, rejection, unpleasant event) + Anger X Self-pity =
Aggression (towards others) or Depression (inwards)
Plug in any event triggering strong negative emotion or hurt (i.e. unmet expectations, rejection, unpleasant words, etc.), add Anger and multiply by Self-pity, and you're pretty much headed towards Depression! Amazing! The human emotion is so complex, isn't it?
[Note: This is different,however, from Grief, which is the natural process in which people adjust to the loss of loved ones over time].
So God didn't create rude people after all! ^_^ They just chose to act (and react) that way !
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