On Memorial Day, I was able to spend some time in the sun. I had a great time but I forgot one crucial piece of advice that most mothers will give these days; I forgot sunscreen. I know that is a major "no no" but I did, so now my feet suffer. That's right, only my feet. The next day, I decided I needed  Aloe Vera for my roasted, when I say roasted I mean roasted, feet. Seriously they are bright pinkish red, which as you can imagine is a lot of fun. So I went to get  some Aloe Vera and decided to stop at Starbucks as I made my way to the office. When I pulled up to the office I decided to put the Aloe Vera on my feet in the parking lot. As you have most likely experienced it can be difficult to put things on your feet while in the driver's seat. In light of this difficulty I did what most people do, open the door and hang my feet out. I put the Aloe Vera on and all went well. But when I started to turn back into my seat to grab my coffee I leaned back at the same time, I did this with force and I heard a crack and spilling sound. I had hit my coffee and the lid came off emptying ¼ of my cup on my backside, it was really hot. Not only did I spill my coffee but I later noticed that I broke the cup holder. As you can tell I was having an awesome day so far.

But after that moment occurred I had a choice. I could choose to allow that to ruin my day or I could choose otherwise. All this got me thinking about some sayings of Jesus, particularly from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus shares some striking things about how we respond. The verse I want to look at is Matthew 5:39 "But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." (NIV) As I think through that verse it is so contrary to human nature, which would say hit back not let them hit you again. But what is the point Jesus is getting at here? I think one of the things he is getting at is that when we are followers of him we can choose how we respond to a situation. That's why Paul can say "Be joyful always" (NIV) in 1 Thessalonians 5:16. So when we encounter a situation we don't like or we have coffee spilled down our backside we can choose how we want to respond. Do we respond with a positive joyful attitude or do we want to respond in bitterness? Whenever we have something happen to us we can choose how we respond. Next time something happens to you that you didn't expect or don't like how will you respond?

Jon Varner