By SB
When I was driving
back home after dropping my kids at the school, I had to pass through a
narrow lane with hardly space for one vehicle. Suddenly a scooter which was
behind me suddenly brushed my car and tried to overtake, but the rider, a lady,
couldn’t do it as the lane was too narrow for her.
She showered her
choicest curses – yes, in a very abusive language – on me. I was dumbstruck for
a couple of seconds by the reaction of the foul-mouthed lady. Should I react or
not? I was thinking. Should I shout back or not? I was a bit angry with the uncourteous
lady, but I decided not to be pejorative and instead kept quiet. I pressed on
the gas and raced ahead, suddenly overtaking the scooter and sped past her. She
continued her verbal assault but I didn’t look back.
Later when I thought
over and over about the incident, I wondered: I showed restraint though the
other lady was abusive. I meditated about it and a Bible verse came to my mind.
It was from a scene
from the passion of Jesus. See what Mathew 26:62-63 says, “Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, 'Are you
not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against
you?' But Jesus remained silent.”
Again, in Mathew 27:13-14, we can read, “Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they
are bringing against you?” But Jesus made no
reply, not even to a single charge — to the great amazement of the governor.”
Jesus could have defended Himself. He could have shouted back and
explain the reality. But He chose to hear all the abuses of high priests and
soldiers. This is one lesson we have not yet learned. “Know this, my
beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to
anger,” says James 1:19.
We sometimes face
wrong allegations and accusations. We are sometimes blamed for something which
we are not responsible. But don’t overreact. As the Proverb says, “even a fool
who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed
intelligent.”
I didn’t overreact
in the scooter incident. On any other day, I would have showed my anger and
disapproval and retaliated verbally. But somehow, I was able to withstand it.
In short, we have to
learn a lot on reacting to circumstances and situations. If we show restraint,
we can avoid many ugly scenes and incidents. We read about road rages in
metropolitan cities like Mumbai. Most of them start in a very small way: in one
case it started with honking and in another case it was refusal to allow
overtaking. Such incidents start with small arguments and end up even in
murders.
Silence is golden on
some occasions. That’s what Jesus teaches us.
