Late one summer evening in Broken Bow, Nebraska, a weary truck driver pulled his rig into an all-night truck stop. The waitress had just served him when three tough looking, leather jacketed motorcyclists -- of the Hell’s Angels type -- decided to give him a hard time. Not only did they verbally abuse him, one grabbed the hamburger off his plate, another took a handful of his French fries, and the third picked up his coffee and began to drink it.Now that's the antithesis of our Lord's instructions to love rather than retaliate! Revenge has no place in the heart and life of the follower of Jesus. We are to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile, Christ tells us in His Sermon on the Mount (see today's gospel, Mt 5:38-42). Human nature by itself cannot do this. Only grace can accomplish this. I must give my poor, weak heart, so naturally inclined to strike back and cause pain, to the One who alone can heal and transform me. Of Him, Peter says, "When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly" (1 Pt 2:23). I must continually hand myself over to Him for by His wounds I am healed (1 Pet 2:24).
How would you respond? Well, this trucker did not respond as one might expect. Instead, he calmly rose, picked up his check, walked to the front of the room, put the check and his money on the cash register, and went out the door. The waitress followed him to put the money in the till and stood watching out the door as the big truck drove away into the night.
When she returned, one of the bikers said to her, "Well, he’s not much of a man, is he?" She replied, "I don’t know about that, but he sure ain’t much of a truck driver. He just ran over three motorcycles on his way out of the parking lot."
Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
make our hearts like unto Thine!
P.S. I know that truck driver. He lives in my heart. Dear Lord, protect and deliver me from myself!
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