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Response Ability
Topic Started: Dec 20 2008, 11:33 PM (367 Views)
Stace
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I wish I knew where I got these words, but I emailed them to myself and did not
put the author down. So, for that, forgive me.

But, still, I had to share them here with you. The words really helped me understand
some things and how to handle them differently. I pray you are blessed.

Quote:
 
RESPONSE ABILITY
Everyday we are bombarded by secular television reminding us that we are in a spiritual battle against our minds. There is much concern about the economy, jobs, and housing prices, mortgage foreclosures, declining morals, attacks against family values, wars and rumors of wars, sickness, disease, terrorism and natural disasters of all kinds. It seems like the perpetual hostilities against our minds offers much opportunity to leave the realm of faith in Christ and enter the quagmire of doubt, unbelief and worry.

Once again I am assisted by the Apostle Paul's statement: "Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God." I love the power to imagine "all things possible to him that believeth." Don't you? Frequently, however, we have to battle the negative thoughts that war against our minds first. This brings me to the testimony of Viktor Frankl a survivor of the Nazi prison camps. In his autobiography, "Man's Search for Meaning," he pens an inspirational testimony of humanity's potential for greatness whatever the circumstances. He wrote, "Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips." Frankl stated that no matter the mistreatment by his demonic oppressors they could never take away his choice of how he responded to them.



You see, a long time ago, we had an employee who worked here at the park with us. He was a test of my patience from the get go. To the boss's face, he was all sweet and eager, but when the boss was gone, he did things his way, if he did anything at all. The boss really liked the image of a man that he saw, and the employee kept that image very pretty. I saw the truth. His work was awful. Not just bad, but awful. Not only that, he would cause problems with the tenants by becoming their friend and down talking the management. Honestly, I could be on friendly terms with a tenant one day, and then be their enemy the next day just because this employee would befriend them the night before.

So, there I was, having to stay quiet, even while face to face with this man in a conversation before each day. I would have to smile and nod my head (when I could agree with him). He was here for about two or three years. And till the day he got fired (he threatened to kill another employee) I cringed every time I saw him. I did not hate him, I was hating myself for not telling him what I really thought about things. That his work was dangerous. That he needed to work the full shift he was getting paid for. That he needed to do this.. or that.. all honest things. But I had no place in the company to speak. So, I smiled and was nice to his face, and hated that my heart said another thing. I was being a hypocrite and I hated it.

After he was fired, I was relieved that he was gone, but never satisfied that I never received my peace in the situation. To me, being honest would have been to tell him that he needed to ship up or ship out. But, I knew that the boss would not agree to that and it would cause problems between the boss and I. And beyond that, I knew that the Lord put me in this job, so I did not want to jeopardize the job.

Now, today, I have my peace over the situation, finally. I can honestly say that I was not a hypocrite, but that, "they could never take away his choice of how he responded to them." I made a choice to be kind. There is redeeming power in that statement. I made the choice to be kind. And if faced with the same thing again, I would do it the same way, yet now, I would keep my peace because I know I am making the choice.

By the way, the other manager and I stood in agreement one day, after some other issues had come about, and we agreed that the door would be shut to that man in this park (God's park). Within 24 hours, he was fired. But, that is another post in another place.

God is good.


stace

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