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June 8,
2007
It’s so easy to be ugly when we stand up for the beautiful.
The most frightened and the most powerless make aggression their ally.
A friend asked me to share that first quote with you this week. The
second one is just for free. These quotes summarizes my growth experience
this week.
The experience ended with a handshake that followed a conversation with
a police officer that followed a 911 call that followed a conversation
that ended with, “If you don’t quit, I’ll come over
and mess you up.”
Over the past six years I’ve pruned overgrowing branches along
a section of bike path here in town. I didn’t ride during the
winter and spring, but now my back is allowing me to be more active.
(Praise God) So on Wednesday I took an hour to volunteer for my community
and trim bushes. Almost everyone who walked by thanked me.
I finished one side of the path and started back on the other side when
a man called out, “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m keeping these limbs from hitting riders.”
“You can ride around them like I do.”
“I know I can, but I’m going to take these off.”
Looking back on things I could have stopped, walked around to the table
where he was sitting and talked with him. However his antagonism was
obvious from the first question and I retreated from a physical confrontation
but entrenched myself in my current position.
“You’d better stop.”
“I’m going to go ahead and finish my job. If you’d
like to call either the city or the police, I’d be happy to talk
with them.”
“If you don’t quit, I’ll come over and mess you up.”
When the next limb touched the ground I heard him jump up from the table
and I got on my bike and called 911. He could have gotten on his bike
and pursued me. I’m glad he wasn’t seriously violent. But
neither one of us understood the concerns or the perspective of the
other.
And even if we did, using violence or threatening violence wasn’t
the way to resolve our differences. We live in a society that has flourished
because we choose not to use force to get our way. For some that seems
to be changing.
I want to engage the world around me. I want to be a powerful force
for change. I want to be the light and not the mirror. So much of the
time I’m the mirror.
“But in that coming day, all who destroy you will be destroyed,
and all your enemies will be sent into exile. Those who plunder you
will be plundered, and those who attack you will be attacked.”
Jeremiah 30:16
Rejoicing in hope,
Pastor Steve
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