Did you know you can choose to be unoffendable? Being offended is what comes natural, it’s our human default setting. If someone makes us mad, or maybe just disagrees with us, our first impulse is to be offended.
When I first heard of Brant Hansen’s book Unoffendable, I was offended. I always thought it was good and healthy to be angry at some things – like sex trafficking, child pornography and civil rights abuses. Sure, I know Jesus taught us to love others, forgive people who hurt us, be patient with those who irritate us. But really, is that what he meant for every day? Every time someone cuts me off in traffic, anyone who doesn’t agree with my political or religious views, people who take my innocuous comments as a reason for heated vitriol, others who are just plain mean?
Today’s cancel culture teaches us – If you aren’t like me, if you disagree with me – I will cancel you out of my life and never speak to you again.
When I study the life of Jesus, I am amazed. He never cancelled anyone. Nor was He ever shocked or surprised at human behavior. He knew that we are all basically selfish, He knew the fallen human heart was just that – fallen. So maybe, just maybe we would do well to live the same way. We all know what’s in our own heart so we can imagine every other person struggles with the same exact stuff.
Different details
different day
different location
different people,
but basically, we all skirmish with the same emotions as every other human on the planet.
Because I battle bitterness toward people who have hurt me, I imagine others do as well. I struggle with forgiveness, so I know others also struggle when I hurt them. When we can accept it as a fact – that people in general are self-centered, untrustworthy, unfaithful and prone to egocentricity – we need not be shocked any longer and can learn to adjust our expectations accordingly.
Now this may sound quite pessimistic but we no longer have to be surprised at human behavior. If we simply remember that people will react in ways we don’t like, we can plan for it and choose a better way. We can replace the shock and anger with gratitude.
Yes, the world is broken, but don’t be offended by it. Instead, thank God that He’s intervened in it, and He’s going to restore it to everything it was meant to be. Yes, the world is broken, and selfish is our default setting. Brant Hansen
It takes the miracle of a new heart to become unoffended. We see anger in the grocery store and at the bank, rage on the roads and annoyance at home. Offense seems to be the fashion, outrage the popular trend. But to be perpetually shocked and offended at others is exhausting. Brant suggests that we might start living with realistic expectations and choose to be the exception – to be those who are not offended.
So, what if we started being the exception? The Beautiful Exception.
Imagine the results of speaking kindness after being insulted instead of shooting back words of the same.
Imagine the beauty when we pray prayers of intercession for our enemies instead of words of accusation.
Imagine the reaction if we searched and spoke of the good people do instead of highlighting the evil.
Imagine trusting God to take care of the people who have hurt us, to let Him do the work and mete out the justice we are incapable of giving.
Imagine if someone cuts you off in traffic and you choose to replace that shock and horror with gratitude, to forgive them and actually pray for them.
And then when a person generously lets you merge – give thanks.
Imagine when your UPS driver drops off a package, you open the door and shout out thank you!
Imagine your life becoming less stressful because you give up your right to anger and offense.
We need to remember, always remember when Jesus was reviled, spat upon and mocked, he never came back with similar words, but instead as he was hanging from the cross, prayed for his enemies,
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
And if Jesus lives in us, we have the power to forgive, to give thanks during difficult times and trust our Father to do what we cannot.
We draw people to Christ by not loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely, that they want to know with all their hearts the source of it.
Madeleine L’Engle
And as Brant Hansen sums it up:
When we recognize our unsurprising fallenness and keep our eyes joyfully open for the glorious exceptions, we’re much less offendable. Why?
Because that’s the thing about gratitude and anger: they can’t coexist. It’s one or the other.
One drains the very life from you. The other fills your life with wonder.
Choose wisely.
Let’s be the Beautiful Exception.
Recent Comments