This week I got mad. I was ticked at the audacity of some people’s rudeness and insensitivity. This past Wednesday night I dropped by a local Asian restaurant to pick up a to-go dinner that I could easily devour while in my car on my way to a six p.m. meeting. I was scheduled to teach a class immediately following the meeting. Enough said! I was obviously in a hurry.
The moment I entered the restaurant, a large family got in line for take-out dinners. The mother and her four children must have waited at least five minutes before uttering a word – just leisurely looking at the food choices. Then they couldn’t decide what they wanted. Once they made a decision, they changed their mind. To top it off, the Mother couldn’t find her credit card when it was time to pay.
If this wasn’t enough, a man cut in front of me and said, “Do you mind?” I thought to myself, “As a matter of fact, I do.” It took everything inside of me to say, “Sure, go ahead.” I assumed he wanted to ask the attendant a question or perhaps grab a bottle of water or something quick. The attendant looked at me and then looked at him. The man assertively stepped forward and announced, “I will be taking care of her dinner.” Then he stretched out his arm to give her the money.
He turned toward me, reached to take my hand and said, “Thank you, Pastor Linda, for all you do and the way you serve us at Gateway Church. My family and I want to buy your dinner for you. Please receive it with our love.” Then his little girl ran over to give me a hug as his wife, sitting at a nearby table, waved and smiled at me. I melted!
I thanked them profusely as I left the restaurant. Once on the other side of the door, I breathed a sigh of relief and silently whispered, “Thank you Jesus; that could have easily been a huge embarrassment followed by endless apologies on my part.” It is nothing short of a miracle that I kept my mouth shut and exercised self-control in the midst of my anxiety filled night. I must be growing in grace!
I wish that I could tell you that I’ve always had success in this area but I can’t. There have been many times that I have reacted improperly to bad service, rudeness, or invasion of my space. In fact, I could tell you some pretty funny stories of comebacks or reactions to those times. They are funny now but they weren’t at the time. Many times, God has required me to go back to the people and make amends – to apologize for my bad behavior. Maybe that’s one of my motivations for exercising self-control! It’s not fun to apologize when you’ve acted like a fool.
It was a wonderful gesture for this precious family to buy my dinner. Thank God I reacted with grace to their incredible generosity.
Proverbs 16:32 He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, he who rules his own spirit than he who takes a city