No butts for me

I was driving down to the church yesterday and three times I had to dodge cigarette butts that came flying out of car windows from in front of me. I couldn't believe it. I actually tooted the horn and flashed my lights at the last person who did that. I took it as a personal insult. I began to feel that I was being persecuted.

The truth is that I know the flying ashes had nothing to do with me. It was a a nice day. People were driving with their windows down and the people who would normally put the butt in the ashtray just decided to flick it out. I was in the wrong place at the right time.

A lot of us take the insults of the world personally. We get all worked up and start walking around angry and ready to fight the world if we get insulted or wronged. The Apostle Paul tells us that we should look at every circumstance as an opportunity to bring praises to God. I thought about that after I finished my little tirade. Then I said a prayer for the person in the car in front of me.

We can turn every situation around. If Paul could pray for his prison guards, then you and I can certainly pray for someone who foolishly wrongs us along the way. In Paul's case the men were converted. Who knows what we can do when we give the bad situations to God and let God work his grace?