Today I made a stupid mistake. I met up with two of my old High School friends, David and Cacey, to go to the mall today. David was the guy who interned at Oracle over the summer and came to one of our A2F blue's bible study. And Cacey is my best friend =)
While we were driving back, we suddenly touched on the topic of evil, and David quips, "I don't believe in sin." I reply, "Well "sin" may seem like a strong word, but its definition is just the word "wrong." David replies, "I don't believe in wrong or right." I suddenly got angry. I said, "So you don't believe a man who rapes a thousand girls and tortures them before he kills them is wrong? There's a moral standard in this world." I think I said it too harsh because he starts to retort in this very philosophical voice, "You're talking about the absolute-" before my brother (he was the driver) cuts him off and says, "guys, calm down."
David said something else, but I was too blinded by my anger to hear. I said "Why don't you read the "Reason for God" book I gave you over the summer and maybe then you'll understand." He replies, "Umm...I don't think so." His tone made his words seem final. That's when I yelled back, "Fine, then give it back to me."
I know...stupid stupid stupid stupid. I know I shouldn't have said that. I know I shouldn't have reacted so strongly. I wonder what I could have said differently in reply to his question, and then I wish I could have been patient enough to listen to every word he said before I argued anything back. This taught me a big lesson. Listen carefully before you speak. And always, "emotional intelligence." The hardest part of emotional intelligence is: "Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody's power, that is not easy" - Aristotle.
Please don't make the same mistake I did. This was a backward step for me to introduce the gospel to 2 people over Winter Break. Now I have to take two steps forward.
But before I do that, I need to apologize to him.
Showing posts with label mistake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mistake. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
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