I was with a group of friends recently in a coffee shop and two of them got into heated debate over potholes. (Yes, potholes.) Each offended the other in an effort to prove who was most informed and most powerful.
This is getting pretty common. Friends are offended over a word spoken in error, drivers are offended when another driver goes too slow or too fast, shootings occur because a person felt disrespected, and politics: Don't get me started on politics, which we allow to divide friends and families to the extent that TV hosts give advice on how to "survive" holidays with relatives who have different political opinions.
Let's face it, It is not a question of whether you will be given the opportunity to be offended but rather, what will be your response when that time comes.
Proverbs 19:11 says "A person's wisdom yields patience, it is to one's glory to overlook an offense." Jesus was under attack from critics constantly. In 1st Peter, scripture says "they hurled insults" at Him," but "He trusted himself to the One who judges justly."
Interestingly, the word "offense" comes from the Greek, meaning "bait." Specifically, the bait that was used to lure animals into a trap. Basically, when we take offense, we are taking the bait and we too are lured into a trap.
There will always be those who disagree and always lots of opportunities to be offended. But I find that if I can just keep in mind that everyone comes from a different place, and that I too can trust myself to the One who judges justly, then I can drop it and let it go—at least most the time.
We all might embrace the method used by the embattled Dutch philosopher Rene Descartes, who said, "Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it."
OK. Our souls might not be quite that high, but we at UNITE INDY are working every day to bring hope to people who need hope. Even in this kind of work there is opportunity to take offense when there is a lack of interest in the difficulties many people face in our city. But rather than take offense, we find there is an opportunity to change a heart. And, if we cannot change a heart we move on to do what needs to be done.
Nothing will keep us from that goal.
Not taking the bait,
Nancy
