Acts 16:16-40

Carl Belcher considers how we treat people who annoy us

Carl Belcher

Over a couple of years ago I started to get involved with a charity that trains up volunteers to become First Responders in their local community. This means that along with my fellow responders I get called out by the ambulance service to attend 999 calls and provide emergency medical assistance until the ambulance crew arrives.

In the very early hours of one recent Friday morning whilst on call, I was dispatched to attend a potential heart attack at a local nightclub. As I rubbed the sleep from my weary eyes, I got into the car and started to think about what potential action I needed to take when I arrived on scene. All ready to jump into action when I arrived, I was presented with a young woman who had consumed far more than just a drink or two and was doing her very best to let all around her know what she was thinking and feeling! The potential 'heart attack' turned out to be nothing more than the effects of hyperventilating due to anxiety and after some time, Cheryl (for the sake of this story) managed to calm down and all was well. I must confess though that my thoughts at this point were far from gracious! "Great" I thought to myself, "I've been woken up at 3am just for this screaming basket case and what's more, there's an ambulance on it's way that could be going to a real emergency instead of this!" It might have been due to my tiredness, but to be honest I was really irritated at that point. "Oh no.." I thought, "I've turned into that grumpy old man from 'One foot in the grave'!!

I guess that even though this particular irritation might not have had the same effect on you, we all have our own triggers. Situations, circumstances or people that cause you to breathe in just that little bit longer, crack your knuckles or roll your eyes. Maybe it's that overly chatty person at work when you just want to get on with your mountain of paperwork? Maybe you're irritated by that Facebook friend whose every FB status update is one big moan about how unfair their life is? Or how about the person who parks their car so badly that it takes up two spaces in the car park..the LAST two. ARGH!!

We all get irritated by certain people or situations don't we? So how do we get beyond that and what does the Bible have to say about being annoyed?

A great example of this is found in the book of Acts 16:16-40:

'"Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.

When her owners realised that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice."

The verses go on to say that Paul & Silas were beaten and put in prison but that God miraculously busted them out resulting in their freedom and causing the jailer and his family to turn to Christ. "So what?", you may be thinking and "Surely if Paul got annoyed, then it's ok for me to get annoyed with people too?"

The thing though is that Paul didn't get irritated or annoyed in the way that we understand those words. The word 'annoyed' that is used in those verses comes from the Greek word 'diaponeō' which is better translated as to be 'grieved, troubled or pained'. In other words, Paul wasn't irritated by the girl, but instead he was annoyed with the slave masters who were using her for their own means. Paul saw that behind the demonic voice was a precious woman made in the image of God who was being oppressed and exploited. I'm pretty sure that he knew that the woman's owners would be furious about losing their income once she had lost her powers, but her freedom was more important to Paul than his own personal comfort.

Back to my story about Cheryl. While I waited for the ambulance to arrive I got to have a really good chat with her. It turns out that the reason for getting herself into the state she was in was due to her feeling worthless and unloved. The 'irritating' drunkenness and anxiety was just symptomatic of the deeper issues that Jesus came to give us freedom from and at that moment I desperately wanted Cheryl to be released from her internal prison and know her true worth. Miraculously, in those few minutes I got to spend with Cheryl, God managed to set me free from my initial irritation and changed my perspective to one wanting liberation.

How about you? Do you need to experience this too?

If you do, I want you to consider putting this into action by doing the following four things:

1. Think of the person(s) who most irritates you.
2. Ask God for the opportunity to get alongside them, initiate conversation, ask how they are.
3. Say sorry to God if you've let your heart become hard or cold towards them.
4. Ask God to give you compassion for them; to help you see beyond the behaviour and see the person who God cherishes.

This might sound like a big challenge (and it is!), but what would it be like if we all did this? Imagine what our workplaces would look like as we begin to transform the culture to one of inclusion and acceptance. Imagine the countless people who as a result of the acceptance we give them won't pass on the scars of rejection to their children to repeat the cycle.

Imagine our communities being places where every single person is seen as having equal intrinsic worth. Isn't that worth running towards?!

Through Jesus' empowerment you can make this happen. Go For It!!