Padre’s thought for the week
Beep Beep! went the horn of the car behind me when I delayed for a nano second from pulling away from the green traffic light. Now my instinctive reaction was to beep back and give the irate gentleman a non-regimental two finger salute, but I did not. I simply pulled away and continued on my journey. I am naturally reactive and hot headed and my mum always taught me to put my mind into gear before allowing my mouth to drive - sound advice!
But more than that my faith gives me an incredibly useful tool, almost a spiritual ‘hand brake’ From a reactive hot head, I now more easily pause when confronted, criticised, mocked or threatened. This allows me to respond appropriately and without making a tense situation worse. In the ACF we would call this discipline, but for me its discipline plus empathy: What if the man behind beeping was rushing to help a relative in need? I’ll never know but my spiritual ‘handbrake’ stopped the incident getting worse.
Stay safe
Padre Terry Wright
