Sometimes you have to laugh

Whether you like it or not--you will offend someone. No matter who you are or what you do...for some reason there is a person or group of people who will get mad. You don't even have to try to be offensive...trust me, I learned this on Monday morning upon arriving at work.

Let me set this up--I drive a new 4Runner that has one of those remote thingys that you can lock your door with. (I remember the first car I had with one of these...I would stand and lock and unlock the door just because I could!). When you lock the car it makes a "beep." (I know, some go "beep beep;" however, mine is just one "beep" to lock & "beep beep" to unlock).

So I get out of my car, lock it while I am on the way in with my remote...and I see this older guy walking in...and he's giving me a really dirty look. So I smiled at him (not the wise thing to do--I found this out later) and said, "Good morning--how are you?" (Once again--not the wise thing to do).

This dude nearly melted down! He went off on me by saying, "I'm not good at all...these stupid people with these new cars...they are too gosh darn lazy (his exact words) to lock their stupid car...all they have to do is run their finger over a button--but NO, they have to blow their stupid horn and scare people half to death--there's just no sense in that".

Keep in mind that this was Monday morning...I had just spent all morning leading worship at church the day before, and most of that evening at The Afters concert, and was still sort of out of it...so I didn't realize at first that he was talking about me--so I kept smiling at him and said, "Man--that's awful".

Then he gave me a look that told me I should go to somewhere I can't go because I am a Christian and walked in the door ahead of me.

Then it hit me, "He's talking about me!" I realized that I must have scared this dude when I locked my door and that he was going off not on some random person--but me!!!

I stopped in my tracks...and then I just started laughing...I could not help it, I tried not to--I guess if I had been godlier I would have felt sorry for this guy--but I could not get the picture of what it must have looked like when I locked my car out of my mind.

Trust me--I didn't mean to offend this dude. I didn't sit in my car and scope him out and then blow the horn...I had no idea that this would even remotely affect anyone in a negative way. But nonetheless...he was ticked.

So what should my response have been? Maybe I should have apologized. Maybe I should not use my remote thingy anymore. Maybe I should just not lock my car! I am not sure what the Biblical thing to do was--but I could not help but laugh.

Like I said--sometimes you will offend people without even trying...and if you take the time to run around and apologize for every misconception or misunderstanding that you are involved in then...well...let's just say you are going to live a miserable life.

I had a friend tell me once, "words don't have meanings...people have meanings". And that is so true--people hear what they want to hear and believe what they want to believe. Our job as followers of Jesus is to live a life that is above reproach...realizing that sometimes people will get offended without our knowledge...and we have to live with that. I suppose from time to time an apology might be necessary--but I didn't feel that doing the "beep beep" thing with my remote was a clear violation of Scripture.

So how has this altered my life? Well...not really at all. I will continue to use my remote...I do not feel that repentance is in order here--but I will try to make sure when I use it that this dude isn't even in the parking lot (unless I am feeling mischievious!).

Have an awesome day--and remember that our job is the relentless pursuit of who Christ called us to be--anything else is sin.