Humble Pie

You know, I actually love it when my humanity shows. It's more like a love/hate relationship really. Because it never fails that just when you start thinking that you got it down, you're in the "good guy" zone, trying to be the "good example", God sends someone along your path that just dwarfs your so-called good intentions!! And it stings when you find that someone has handled a situation better than you have. . . trick is, will you walk away from that situation a better person for it, and that all depends on your pride levels I guess.

Me, I'm not so prideful as I am damaged goods from past relationships and dealings, so I lack in the trust department and tend to just take everyone with a great assault until I know it's safe to trust them. Problem with this is that God says to have faith in Him to take care of things. My worrying and caution often shows my lack in faith not just the human race but also in God's ability to take care of me no matter what.

Luckily God knows my short-comings (help me, Lord, in my unbelief - in Jesus' name), so He sends me into situations like the latest transaction with a brother only known at the time to be "some student" due to his profile name. My thoughts is that it was some teenage college student trying to dump off unwanted stuff on ebay, so when I got the item in damaged condition I just naturally figured the worse . . . "some college kid passing off his damaged goods to some schmuck on ebay - well I'll show him I'm no shmuck", and I sent him a stern, not hateful - but judgemental and accusing, notice to take care of the problem immediately "or else". I recommended half payback because product was fixable on my end at a small fee on my part.

Well God had other plans for me, because what i got back from this brother was an unquestioned and very apologetic "FULL" refund with his blessings and a very kind positive mark on my feedback.

I was/am so humbled, for here i just took this guy for a crook and it turns out he wasn't aware of the product being damaged and never even questioned my integrity when he took it upon himself to give me a full refund with his apologies. Even when I told him it could be fixed and I offered him partial money back (less what I had to pay to fix it), he simply asked to accept the full refund with "Christ-style" blessings (that's sacrificial blessings for you non-christians). It brought tears to my eyes quite frankly, dear friends. All of a sudden this transaction wasn't about money and video games any longer (God cares nothing about those things), suddenly it was about forgiveness, trust, consideration, compassion and sacrifice.

WOW! Now that's a GOD Thing, brothers and sisters. My $8.25 just became a priceless moment of growth in my Faith Life - praise God.

Thank you, Reverend, for your Christ-inspired response to my not so Christ-like "knee-jerk" reaction to this transaction.

Oh, yeah - did I not mention that the seller was a Reverend - "a teacher of God's ways". Yeah, when God humbles you, He does so relentlessly. Had this been a regular joe, I would still have been humbled by his reaction, but the fact that I got caught with my pants down by a brother-in-faith being not-so-faithful will make this humble pie sting for some time.

And as a Christian trying to grow into a better man to serve the Lord "PROPERLY", these sort of spiritual spankings are priceless in our quest for true discipleship.

Hurts oh so good . . . in Jesus' name.