Yesterday I got into an accident with a biker and another car.
I was pulling across an intersection with a green light and the bicyclist pulled right in front of me. He swerved around me and we hit him slightly and then he slammed full force into the other car and broke the windshield.
Attitude Check
Everyone was ok but it was a very scary time and lots of rescue vehicles showed up to help out. With all of those rescuers there, police, firemen and paramedics, there were a lot of people helping out, but the one thing that stood out above the rest was the bicyclists horrible attitude. He was grouchy, rude, ignorant and didn’t care that he was at fault, but just wanted to leave. Everything was his fault and he caused quite a bit of damage, but he didn’t have any insurance so it wouldn’t cover the damage to our car or the other drivers, but he was still rude to us even though everyone was trying to help him. When I saw this attitude, I took time to reflect and think about how I should respond.
Normally I have a very bad attitude while I am driving and I struggle with a lot of road rage, so my first reaction to him could have been that. I could have turned and been angry and yelled at him for being foolish and then I could’ve driven off in a rage. Instead I thought about what God calls us to do, what the greatest thing in life is.
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
First Things First: Love
Our first reaction to everything in our lives as Christians needs to be love. We cannot have a bad attitude because someone messes up or because someone cuts us off or because we don’t get our way. We have screwed up plenty of times in life, but God still shows us love and is on our side and forgives us.
If we receive that kind of love from Christ, how can we do anything but show the same love to others?
We need to stop and take the time to evaluate what our interactions with other people are throughout the day. We talk about how we want to have ministries and start churches and bring people to Christ, but the best way to show others Christ love is to live it out. When you are having a bad day and something terrible has just gone wrong, rather than being rude to the checkout lady at the grocery store, smile and show her the same love that God has shown us.
The same goes for how we treat our fellow church tech team members, worship teams and other church volunteers.
“Lord, help me show genuine love to the people around me. And give me boldness when You open doors for me to tell them about you. Amen.”
Timothy says
Thank you for this post, Chris. I am sorry that this happened to you, but I greatly appreciate your sharing it in the way that you did.