The poor clerk was taken aback, but to his credit he didn’t respond in a hostile fashion. Moreover, he went so far as to say to the man as he waddled out the door still mumbling and cursing, “come back again real soon”. I am fairly certain that invitation was offered with a hefty bit of sarcasm. The clerk turned his attention to me, and I found myself offering up an apology for the behavior of the man who has just exited the building. I left the building and got into my car, when I began to wonder why I felt the need to apologize for the deplorable behavior of somebody I didn’t even know!
As I drove toward the office, I thought that one can almost expect such behavior by those in the “world”. But as my mind began clicking back on occasions where I have found myself offering apologies on behalf of others and it saddened me because it was members of the church who were acting in a contrary fashion. Though to be sure not with the same hubris as the man at the AM/PM.
The Scriptures are replete with teaching regarding the attitude of self importance. In Proverbs 8:13 Solomon wrote, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.” Those that embrace such an attitude manifest that deep down, they are but insecure rubes. Apparently they think the whole world revolves around them. What pretension. The child of God needs to embrace the mind of Christ which is humility
(see Phil. 2:1-8). Sadly though when such attitudes do surface, most simply want to gloss over it with a blanket statement like, “well, you know, that’s just the way he (or she)is and there’s really not much anyone can do about it.” Tell that to James who pointed out that IF the individual really wants to be directed by God, then change is imperative (see James 3:13ff), and a large part of that change is directed at embracing an attitude of humility.
We don’t have the right to run rough shod over anyone. Peter would use the phrase, “lord it over..” with respect as to how not to treat others. Still there are those, and yes, sadly members of the body of Christ who feel they have the “right” to be rude, crude and boorish at the expense of others. In fact there are even some who take “pride” in how directed they are in dealing with others. A simple slice of life, but the amount of learning and growth that can be found in such is unparalleled. The author of Proverbs the 30th chapter also recognized that in the seemingly little things in life there are lessons that can be garnered. So it m
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