Coleslaw Effect

“Don’t be yourself, be someone a little nicer” Mignon McLaughlin

Since we are saying goodbye to another year, I believe it is quite appropriate to say farewell to at least one bad habit in the process. Unfortunately, in my life it has been confirmed and substantiated that I can be a jerk at times; therefore I thought it would be best to be up front about my bad habit.

 

Recently I was out for dinner at a nice restaurant, but I brought an unwanted attitude with me.  After an uncertain month, in an effort to treat myself, I ordered some BBQ ribs with fries.  However, I neglected to notice that they came with coleslaw, which I highly detest. 

Subsequently when the waiter brought my food out to me I immediately made a grotesque face.  To which the person I was eating with rightfully told me what I was doing was inappropriate.  Of course, I was taken a back and tried desperately to re-arrange my plate and shove the coleslaw to the side. It was just a sad attempt at trying to cover up for being a jerk.

It dawned on me later how much of a jerk I can be at times and how I tend to treat other people like coleslaw.  So, I took a quick evaluation of this past week to see where else I was being a jerk.

Just last weekend I played a flag football game with a bunch of teens and found myself spiking the football after scoring a touchdown.  When I was younger and played flag football spiking the football meant very little, except it made me feel good.  Yet, the other day when I did it the younger generation took it as a taunt.  I didn’t mean to be a jerk, but what I was doing could be interpreted as a jerk type activity. Therefore, next time I need to think before I act because it really stinks to be a jerk unintentionally.

Jesus says love your neighbor.  If someone I didn’t sign up for to be nice to is placed into my life, I tend to complain about them.  Much like I did with that side order of coleslaw. What a jerk I can be sometimes. It’s like a flash of selfishness comes over me and I act inappropriately. Often I perceive my ways to be right and don’t even try to put myself in someone else’s shoes.  Instead I should strive to be different and look at others through the eyes of Jesus.

The Bible is quite explicit that there is none righteous, no not one.  Try as I might, far too often I can’t escape myself and my litany of bad behaviors I have accrued over time. Yet I believe God calls us to step up our lives by submitting our agenda to Him, in a joyful manner.  It doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time and practice, but it can be done.

Thankfully for me, God does not invoke the coleslaw effect and scrape me off His plate.

Swavel