If you care to know how irate and fussy I can get, join me when I commute to work by bus. I hate myself when I'm on a crowding bus. I hate everyone around me - the fat lady, the sweaty guy, the beardy old man, the wailing kid. Aaargh! I throw nasty looks at them when someone steps on my foot. I fix my face in an angry-irritated-ugly cast and constantly clench my teeth. I just hate all these people. Just hate them. Won't all these jerks be wiped away from the planet!!
I was reading Philippians chapter four the other day. I like Paul a lot. Yeah, Paul of the hanky-apron-healing fame... My love for Paul didn't come through years of memory verse reciting in Sunday school. It was much like a tamil movie plot before the interval. (In case you are dying of curiosity, this is how I came to love Paul )
Am I digressing? Okay. So I was reading Philippians 4 and this one verse stared me on my face.
Let your gentleness be evident to all... Phil 4:5
Does that mean I need to be nice and kind and smile-y to the dirty bloke who smells like a 100 tasmac shops? and to the lady who is lavishly sitting on her seat plus 3/4ths of mine?
Maybe Paul, and God, really mean the "evident to all" gentleness business... but maybe there are some reservations.. Maybe on crowding buses, maybe.
