The Angry Man

I’ve been accused of being an overly positive person at times, maybe even a little naïve. And that’s okay because it’s true. My glass isn’t half full…its three-quarters full! Unfortunately, every once in a while something happens that tips my glass and makes me lose just a little bit of my faith in my fellow man. Fortunately, nothing will ever drain my “pitcher of positivity” completely.  

 

Yesterday (Sunday morning at 6:40am) I received a long rambling angry text message telling me what a horrible person I am. Ouch! First, the sender started detailing all the things that are wrong in his life; how bad his ex-wife is, how he doesn’t get to see his kids, how unfair everyone is to him, how his job sucks and he has no money and then he proceeded to tell me how I need to pull my head out of my “you know what” and start helping him instead of ignoring him. His words were extremely harsh and ended with a physical threat. I have to admit I’ve never received a message like that before and hope I never do again because it’s really sad. It’s sad because the man sending the message sees everyone else in the world as the problem instead of looking at the truth about himself.

Isn’t it true that we have a choice as to how we look at our own lives. Everyone struggles at times and everyone suffers. We all go through hard times because life isn’t fair…and it isn’t supposed to be. I’ve certainly had my share of hard times and I’ve certainly made my share of mistakes, and guess what I learned….most of the hard times I’ve ever had were caused by my own mistakes! That realization has enabled me to turn my mistakes into lessons learned and perhaps come out a little smarter on the other side. So as crazy as it sounds, I am thankful for the hard times I’ve encountered in my life. They’ve made me smarter and stronger and proven to me that God really does have a plan for me as long as I am honest with myself and maintain my faith in Him. Also, it doesn’t hurt to have a positive attitude along the way either. By that I mean…if we focus on all the positive things in our lives instead of the negative ones…we can find happiness no matter what our circumstances are.

So I am wondering how I should answer the angry man. I could suggest he take a long honest look at himself before blaming everyone else for his problems. Or I could offer up a cliché like…”What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. Or I could simply explain that making life better usually starts when we work on making ourselves better first. Or maybe…I just need to find him, put my arms around him, and let him know that I care deeply about him… and be bluntly honest with him that there truly is only one person with the power to fix his problems.

Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. 

It's what you do with what you have left.

~ Hubert Humphrey