Coals Of Fire

It’s a pretty simple Christian concept. Are you a tough guy? Fight back. Are you a really tough guy? Turn the other cheek. I fail miserably at this but some don’t. The result of this action is invariably coals of fire.

It was an absolutely beautiful, warm Sunday AM. I was on my way to Tim Hortons for my morning coffee and dog run. Now when I say I run my dog, I actually wind my window down, let him jump out, and drive alongside him. Never mind that though, back to my slow cruise to the coffee shop….

As I made a right turn onto a small paved road and slowly rolled along, a lifted truck with decals passed me at a high speed and subsequently cut me off. This was an inconvenience to me as I was blathering on to my forever bored passenger about right and wrong. I was mildly irritated as I pulled into the Tim Hortons. Not to my surprise the lifted truck was in line. I simply wanted to ask him what his problem was. So I opened my door, my power window has no power, to ask.

I think he misinterpreted my door opening and responded with a fair bit of hostility. He said something like, “Listen buddy if you want to go for a Sunday drive fine, but get the $&@“ out of the way.”

At this point I abandoned all Christian virtue that I freely espouse, but rarely possess and called him a very derogatory term, introduced and closed by some colourful profanity. “You are a blankety blank, you blankety blank blank.”

Christian means little Christ. I was not that. I was a jerk. Not to mention my comment was a derogatory, sexist comment and my passenger was an avowed feminist. I was irate. We threatened each other a few times and then we finally resorted to making faces at each other in the mirror. You can imagine my glee as the man who was apparently in such a hurry stalled his truck twice trying to move ahead. I laughed openly and made sure he saw it. My passenger was not as thrilled. She had her hand on my leg and was trying to de-escalate the situation as always. As quickly as my temper had flared it subsided, and of course I began moralizing again… “You see? If that man was Jesus he would buy my coffee for me!, coals of fire they call it!”

I pulled ahead to accept my coffee and as I stretched my phone out to pay the attendant at the window she said, “Your coffee is paid, the gentleman ahead of you paid for it.”

I think you can imagine how sheepish I felt. Now I might sit here and nitpick just a little and suggest he was not a gentleman, but he sure as hell was a lot more like Christ than I have ever shown. I tip my hat to you sir, whoever you are. You are undoubtedly a better man than me. I hope I run into you again one day, or better yet get ahead of you in the Tim Hortons drive-thru. You taught me a lesson I was all to willing to talk about, but never exemplify. Coals of fire, heaped on my head. A fitting crown for a jackass.

If you read this far, thank you.

Tris.