By Rick Wilson
I drive a truck for a living. It’s my job. Most of my hours “at work” are spent on the road. So I am by myself a lot. And often, God is at work on me. Sometimes it gets ugly …
The other day on the way to work, I swung in to a Tim Horton’s to get my cup of coffee for the road. Right after I pull into the drive through line, I see the guy behind me in my rear-view mirror. His face is all twisted up and ugly. His hands are flailing wildly in the air. He’s mouthing words and making gestures I’m glad I can’t understand from where I’m sitting.
So I’m thinking, what did I do? Did I cut the guy off? Did I take his spot? Why is he so mad at me?
And now I’m getting worked up. What right does he have to take out his bad day on me? I mean, I am getting really angry! Now my face is all twisted up and ugly too. I literally want to get out of the car and punch this guy in the nose!
But right at that moment, something happened inside of me. It was like the Spirit of Jesus moved in my heart. And once my heart changed, I saw that angry man differently. I didn’t need to respond to ugly with ugly. I saw someone who was having a bad day, and instead of wanting to defend myself, I started wanting to help him.
I think it kind of works that way: the devil puts something in front of your eyes, and it makes its way into your mind and then down to your heart. Jesus puts something in your heart, and it makes its way up to your mind and then out your eyes, so that you start seeing things differently.
I had heard about people paying for the people behind them in a drive through. So when I pulled up to the window, I handed over my $1.84 and said I wanted to pay for the car behind me, whatever he had ordered.
$1.57. That was it. $1.57. I paid it and drove off without of backward glance.
A few blocks later, someone starts laying on their horn, just blasting away. I’m thinking, here we go again! I start getting worked up and can feel the road rage starting to boil when I get a good look at the guy honking. It’s Mr. Angry Face.
But this time, his face is lit up with a big smile. He’s just as animated, but I can read these hand gestures: OK, thumbs up, awesome, thanks man!
What a change! Night and day! This guy went from angry and obnoxious to almost giddy!
So now I am smiling and dancing in my seat. I immediately grab my phone and call my wife. I must be just as giddy as the other guy, because I am yelling into the phone: “It works! It actually works! That love your enemy thing actually works! This is amazing!”
I drive a truck for a living. It’s my job. I am by myself a lot. And often, God is working on me. Sometimes it gets ugly, but sometimes the Holy Spirit makes a change in me. And then I get to see something awesome happen!
That other driver went from angry and obnoxious to thankful and friendly. And I went from wanting to punch the guy in the face to wanting to help. All for the price of a coffee.
