MAX ON LIFE

35. My boss has a habit of making snide comments about me that really hurt. I like my job, but this person keeps tearing down my self-esteem and making life very difficult for me. What can I do?

"When they hurled their insults at (Jesus), he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. (1 Peter 2:23)

Jesus, after hours of put-downs, mockings, and parodies, said nothing. He did not fire back with one sarcastic atomic bomb. And you would have to think, with his mastery of the language and the number of clever verbal assaults he'd heard in his lifetime, he could have made them swear.

So what are we supposed to do when the boss hurls insults at us?

Did you see what Jesus did not do when the crowds and the guards insulted him? He did not retaliate. He did not bite back. He did not say, "I'll get you!" No, these statements were not found on Christ's lips.

Did you see what Jesus did do? He prayed. He "entrusted himself to him who judges justly." Or said more simply, he left the judging to God. He did not take on the task of seeking revenge. He demanded no apology. He hired no bounty hunters.

Never, never have I seen such love. If ever a person deserved a shot at revenge and had the power to do some serious supernatural damage in the process, Jesus did. But he didn't call down armies. He called down grace. He died for them.

How could he do it? I don't know. But I do know that all of a sudden my wounds seem painless. My grudges and hard feelings are quite petty.

Days later, Jesus rose again, victorious, to eternal life, while the mockers woke up still stewing in their miserable lives - angry, painful, unforgiven, graceless. In the end, truth won out. It always does.

By: Max Lucado