The
following story happened a little over five years ago when Alexis was still my
roommate before she became Darin's (through marriage).
Darin (my
bro) and I are about to settle into an evening of movie watching fun when I get
a phone call from a guy I work with. He says that he and his wife are going to
a hockey game and asks if I would like to go. "Heck yeah!" is my calm
response. Chris then says that there are four tickets so if I wanted someone
else to go I could bring them. I ask Darin and he says, "I can't stay out
that late Denise." OK, so I go to the game alone with Chris and Vanessa.
Well, the seats that Chris got from a well-known cardiologist were not that
great, but whatever, they were free. About 7 empty rows in front of us is a
youth group. The adults have congregated to one end of the line of kids and
can't really keep an eye on the other end. The boy in question had on a
football jersey from his school with the last name, "Huggins" on it.
He was obnoxious. Now, I know that any of you who actually know me will say,
"Takes one to know one," but this kid went above and beyond the call
of duty when it comes to being obnoxious.
We were
sitting right next to the opposing team's fan base. I would like to throw out
the fact that we are the worst team in our division. Anyway, anytime that the
other team did well, the fans, of course, would cheer and jump up and wave
their arms and all the fan stuff that you do. This child, kept making extremely
rude comments to the fans and just being a loud obnoxious jerk face. He made
all Brahmas fans look terrible. Sportsmanship is a virtue that this young child
did not possess. Anger began to well up in me. I was in one of those moods that
cause Darin to say, "Don't get me into a fight, Denise." Well,
finally I had had enough and I could tell that others around me also had had
enough. Therefore, without thinking about the possible consequences I grabbed
the chair in front of me and yelled, "SHUT UP!!!" I was stunned but
could not let that show on my face. These punks can smell fear and look for any
sign of weakness. He turned around and said, "You wanna make something of
it?" OK, now this punk wants to push me. No problem. "Bring it, Huggie."
That last comment brought laughter from three older teenage boys sitting to the
side of us. It also brought forth some chuckles from Huggie's friends. He then
made a small movement as if he was gonna come up to me. He also through out
some sentence fragments. I then pulled a matrix and put my hand up and simply
motioned for him to come on. He sat down and faced forward. Of course, after
that, anytime that he yelled something, or any of his friends yelled something,
they would peer up in my direction to see if I was looking. I know I could've
taken one or two of them. But there were, like, 10 of them. That might have
been a little bit of a stretch for the Denise-i-nator. For this reason, I was
glad that their chaperones decided to leave when there was 4:42 left in the third
period.
When I think
back on that night, I realize that those youth leaders could've used me as an
object lesson. James 1:19 says "My dearly loved brothers, understand this:
everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger."
Yeah, that
wasn't me.
How grateful
I am that God isn't like me. I look back at that night at the hockey rink and
think if God was in the habit of reacting in the manner that I did, I would've
been dust a long time ago. I glad He's more like Psalm 145:8. "The LORD is
gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in faithful love."
Next time
(hopefully), I'll go to a Stars game.
No comments:
Post a Comment