20May
As I was getting out of the truck at the job site, I spotted him. Immediately tension began to narrow my focus, and I kept my distance. My coworker wanted to invite him to ride in the cab with us. My response was, for me, a surprisingly strong opposition. I heard myself saying, “He is not riding in the cab with me!” Heads snapped in my direction at the aggressive refusal. “He can ride in the back,” came my terse counter offer. And he did ride in the back of the truck.
At this point, you may be wondering who could evoke such a negative response. He was a 10” long rattlesnake. I was not angry with the snake. He, nor any of his kin, had not bitten me. There was nothing to forgive. I just didn’t trust letting the venomous snake my friend had just captured in his lunch box ride in the cab with me.
My problem was not anger. It was not a grudge. It was not vengeance. My knowledge of rattlesnakes, coupled with a flimsy lunch box and a very bumpy road out to the highway, simply activated my mistrust sensors.
We can truly forgive someone and, as the old saying goes, “not trust them as far as we could throw them.” Do not confuse a lack of trust with forgiveness. Prudence demands that you pay attention to the anxiety that arises about anyone who has not genuinely earned your trust. And tomorrow, the associated warning!
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