Petty, Anger, and Self-Sabotage
Apr 21, 2023
Petty, Anger, and Self Sabotage
I have often said that my least sanctified times are when I am driving.
Today was no different.
I was out running errands today and on a major street. I noticed that the car I was getting ready to pass had their left turn signal blinking, so I started flashing my running lights to let them know that they could get over and pass the semi in front of them.
Then a large red truck came running up on the rear of my vehicle. I could tell that I needed to pass the car on my right in order to stay safe.
As I started to pass it at the same time the semi in front of us swung into my lane and slammed on its brakes. It was making a wide right turn and needed my lane too in order to make the turn.
So, I was tapping on my brakes as the fast pick up was riding my tail, but I was watching the rearview mirror and they were looking at the car I was passing, not me. The Red pickup slowed just enough to not rearend me.
They were yelling at me. I was waving my hands at them (not that way).
Once we passed the semi, the pickup took off swinging into the right lane. He pulled even with me and was waving and screaming at me angrily.
I threw my hands up in exasperation. He began accelerating again to pull away from me but slowing to my speed had prevented him from being able to make the light ahead of me.
We both stopped at the light, in the front of our lanes. He kept looking over and yelling at me but I decided not to engage.
When the light turned green, we both accelerated, he took off to get way ahead of me then we both got stuck at the next light, me right behind him.
I’m certain that he kept looking in his rearview mirror only to see me cackling at how stuck he was after being so angry.
The light turned green, and he took off again, but traffic slowed him down so that I arrived right as he was turning into his gated community.
I honked 3 times in chipper fashion to let him know that all of that fast driving and anger hadn’t gotten him anything and I continued to my next errand.
I know that my attitude was petty, and I have not fully processed any repentance I might need to engage in.
Yet, I was struck by how often we let something small steal our pleasure and joy for a long time.
The driver of the red pickup let the fact that I slowed him down impact his ability to get where he wanted to go, in the time frame he wanted to get there, and his attitude was significantly hampered.
He missed a light because he was too busy yelling at me. As a result, his plans were repeatedly hindered.
That reminded me of how often we let something that hurts us drag down the rest of our day or even seasons of our lives, but we don’t recognize how much we are allowing others to steal from us.
For example, if you had $1440 in your wallet and someone stole a single dollar, you wouldn’t burn the other $1439 in response.
Yet, we often let one minute that went poorly corrupt and destroy the other 1439 minutes our day.
How do you respond to anger, disappointments, and setbacks?
What do you do when a loved one says careless or harsh words?
How do you react when an employee, client, or customer makes a mistake or accuses you of wrongdoing?
What kind of response when business is slow?
It is understandable that many things upset us, but often our reactions are at best disproportionate and at worst toxic and self-sabotaging.
Actively choose to protect your joy from being stolen by momentary setback and choose to set yourself up for success by focusing on your God-given opportunities rather than seeking to avenge your honor.
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