| “Blessed are you when people insult you…” |
| —Matthew 5:11a |
We don’t like it when someone says something bad about us. You don’t like it. And, I don’t like it. It hurts our feelings and may even make us angry. Sadly—and I am not intending to hold a “pity party”—over the course of my life, I have been attacked a lot. To many people, I am a truly annoying person. I have very strong opinions about many subjects and, by some unexplainable, yet marvelous, gifts of God’s grace, I have insights and factual information to back up my opinions. I have had to learn how to respond to such attacks. Here’s how I used to explain my behavior when I would respond to someone who had attacked me:
When someone says something bad about me, I go into “maximum destroy” mode. I don’t go looking for trouble and I don’t make people my enemies. But, if someone decides to make me his or her enemy, watch out! Their destruction is on the way.
Frankly, I’m no longer at all proud of that philosophy. But, I confess that it eventually built a reputation whereby people generally did not mess with me. They knew if they tried to destroy me, I would usually end up prevailing in such a contest and they might even find themselves destroyed.
Recently, a representative of an organization for which I once worked wrote some words about me on the organization’s website that, in my opinion, were patently untrue. Amazingly, I suppose in large measure because I have grown just a very little bit wiser with age, I did not launch a counter-blast of destruction. Instead, I called a trusted friend, who I thought might have some influence and tried to explain to him that what was written about me was not accurate. He listened very patiently to me. When I was finished, I thanked him for listening and told him that just because he had listened so kindly, I would now drop any concern that I had and take no further action.
He apparently did talk to someone at the organization, because the publicly available statement that included the falsehoods about me was recently altered to remove the inaccurate charges. I am grateful for his kindness in reaching out to the offender. And, I am grateful—very grateful—that I did not respond as I once might have responded.
In thinking about how poorly, even inappropriately, I might have reacted in the past, I remembered Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:11-12:
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
I hardly consider myself worthy of the same reward as one of the prophets. Nevertheless, these two verses hold the key to showing Christ’s love, even in circumstances where we find ourselves under attack. Instead of launching our own counter-attack, we are to rejoice in the unkindness. Admittedly, that is very hard to do. At least it’s hard for me to do.
But, if we are to believe Jesus’ words, there is a significant reward attached to following in His footsteps. And, after all, we must remember that as He hung on the cruel Roman cross of torture, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
Based on a blog originally posted on Wednesday, January 4, 2017
