2 Corinthians 5:7 “For we walk by faith and not by sight.” (Berean Literal Bible)
As a typical adolescent, I suffered from the same genetic flaw as every other teen…. I was inflicted with the neurological disorder of “know-it-all.” At the ripe old age of 16, without a care in the world, I was armed with the knowledge and experience that only high school drama could bring, and I stood gracious enough to share my opinions as a gift to everyone who was wise enough to listen, especially my parents. At the time, they were under the strange delusion that I needed a job, and, although I was convinced that working and going to high school was a miscarriage of justice, I still obliged. After all, I did need gas money for the car they’d just bought me.
It was at this job, though, that I got my first real dose of reality. A few months into my new employment I met a young lady. She was attractive, petite with a stylish hairdo and bright eyes, and judging from appearances alone, she invested a great deal of care into how she looked. Her uniform was always meticulously in place, and she wore copious amounts of makeup. I assumed she was conceited, (I mean, who gets this dressed up to work at a fast food joint??) so I decided, albeit unconsciously, that I didn’t like her…and to add insult to injury, she had a sharp tongue and a snappy attitude, which really ruffled my feathers.
As with most offenses, the principle of forgiveness is usually the first casualty as our notion of justice rides in on a white horse to rescue our wounded psyche. So, in true tit for tat fashion, I had decided that I would do the hard but necessary work of getting this young lady off that high horse she was on, and I would do it by piercing her inflated ego with the stinging darts of quiet cruelty. You know, the passive-aggressive behavior that can let people know how you really feel without using words: a few eye rolls, long breaths, and looks of disgust would surely get my point across….
On one particular day, however, this woman came in with an extra layer of makeup on, more than her usual amount, moody as always, but I happened to notice a bluish green bruise around her right eye. I later found out that she was in a very dangerous marriage with a military member. She was often separated from her family and friends as they moved from pillar to post. The great care that she took in her appearance was really more of an attempt to hide the dark marks of a grim reality that she lived night after night. As for her “attitude,” well, it turns out that wasn’t the “conceit” I had imagined, but rather an outpouring of fear, frustration, and desperation. This young lady was in a tough place; her marriage was volatile, her family was distant, and as if that weren’t enough, she had people such as myself waiting for her when she arrived at work…
A Lesson That Keeps On Teaching
Here is what I continue to learn from that encounter. How we treat the people we dislike, is a pretty good indicator of how much faith we are exercising in Christ. Jesus said that we must love and pray for our enemies (Matt. 5:44 NIV). This means our enemies, whether real or imagined, must be treated in a way that honors Christ and seeks their wellbeing. I am careful to say “imagined” enemies because, here’s the thing, you don’t know what you don’t know. We have a limited knowledge, a distorted perception, and a very imperfect understanding of the world. I suspect this is why assumptions are such effective tools of the enemy; on face value, assumptions appear to be perfectly reasonable, and yet oftentimes they are the furthest thing from the truth. They can inspire a false confidence about knowing things that we really don’t know, and, as has been my experience, God doesn’t always provide a context that will directly challenge our thinking when it errs. For this reason, the Apostle Paul says, “…we walk by faith and not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7 BLB). In other words, while in this body we order our lives and priorities according to what God says and not according to our own understanding based on the things we can perceive. Paul later concludes this section by saying we will stand before Christ and give an account of everything we have done (2 Cor. 5:10 BLB). That means, quite literally, that I will have to face God and give an account for my actions and the way my actions might have harmed this lady.
In short, I haven’t mastered the lesson from that encounter, and I don’t think I ever will in this lifetime, but it does serve as a constant reminder that everything we do in this life matters, all of it.
May the Lord help us all to be conscious of who He is and to live every day based on His word and not on our own understanding.