Bless Those Who Hate You

Bless Those Who Hate You

Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them.

Romans 12:14

I was on a rare coffee date with a dear friend, and our conversation turned to the never-ending violence in the news of late. Pausing as we contemplated this crossroads our world seems to be standing at, my friend began telling me the recent experience of a man she knows.

Daydreaming as he stood in the checkout line at the convenience store, he waited patiently as the woman ahead of him argued with the store clerk. With two credit cards declined, she noticed and misinterpreted this man’s vacant gaze and slight smile as being directed at her. She laid into him, verbally attacking him and yelling profanities. Before he could respond with an explanation that he wasn’t smiling at her misfortune, she stomped angrily from the store.

Approaching the sales clerk after the woman left, this man quietly said that he would like to put twenty dollars on a gas card for her. The cashier, shocked, asked him why he would do such a thing after the verbal abuse she had spewed. Overhearing the conversation, another gentleman standing in line stepped up and asked if he, too, could add twenty dollars to the gas card.

The two men then stepped outside and approached the woman as she got into her car, giving her the gas card and apologizing for the misunderstanding. She immediately burst into tears of remorse and relief—apologizing profusely for her conduct, asking for forgiveness, and explaining her circumstances. She had just been hired to start a new job but didn’t have enough gas to get to her first day of work the next morning. She was discouraged, stressed, and desperate, and she had snapped.

With my friend’s words lingering in the air, we both sat silent for several beats. This man had offered blessing in the face of angry words because he saw to the heart of the matter—a desperate person lashing out in the midst of her pain. That is hard to do, but think about what would happen if, as Christians, we made it a practice to respond to hurtful words with blessing. We could accomplish some pretty radical world changing if we followed that command.

—Julie

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

The next time you are faced with someone else’s anger, respond with generous, over-the-top blessing.