A person's wisdom yields patience; it is to one's glory to overlook an offense.

Proverbs 19:11, NIV

"Here lies the body of William Jay, who died failing to yield the right of way.

He was right, dead right, as he sped along, but he is just as dead, as if he were wrong."

Old poem of unknown origin

I like these two thoughts, that you we above. But at the same time, I don't like them at all. The truths contained within them sometimes hit too close to home. The first saying is from the Word of God, and therefore it is worthy of our attention. The second came from a newspaper article written nearly a hundred years ago. Both contain truths that are worth exploring, and in today's article, I want to do just that.

The Scripture above contains one of the great "secrets" to a happy life, if we would but heed the inspired writer's advice. We live in such a litigious world that it seems that everybody is suing somebody for some wrong that was done to them, whether that wrong was genuine or merely imagined, We see lifelong friendships torn apart because one of the friends took offense at some slight that may have been given. Then for of a myriad of foolish reasons, one or both of these now former friends simply refused to give the effort that friendship requires. Since neither was willing to simply overlook the offense and move on, they both suffer the consequence of trading a friend for an enemy, and both are poorer for that exchange.  

And in the little poem above from some anonymous, but brilliant writer, we see another tragedy. We witness a man who was clearly in the right, that insisted on maintaining that right, even though it was seemingly in a matter of small consequence. Still, small importance or not, he heroically maintained his rightness to the end, even giving his life as the price for doing so. It's a silly poem, I know, but it contains a serious lesson. For those refusing to yield the right of way, even if it means some slight annoyance for doing so, some people actually end up going to their death. I wonder how many people have lost their lives for the simple fact that they couldn't merely "tap the brakes"?

Even more serious is the case in which a person endangers their eternal soul for the simple reason that they were too selfish to tap the brakes. I wonder how many people have lost an eternal home with God because they did not love their neighbor enough to overlook a minor offense. I also wonder how many people they took with them on that suicidal mission to maintain what was rightfully theirs. For just as surely as there have been countless fatal accidents that cost the lives of not only the offended but also those of their innocent passengers, there must be countless more incidents involving eternal separation from God where people have taken others with them in their reckless pursuit of being right for matters of small consequence.

Now, please don't misunderstand what I am saying. I know that their are causes that are so important that we are expected to take a stand, no matter the cost. But we have to admit that there are many more situations where it would have been far more honorable and far more loving, to have just overlooked the offense and moved on. God is willing to overlook our offenses no matter how big, if we will just take care of them in His way. Jesus told us to ask for forgiveness from God in the same way that we are willing to forgive those who have sinned against us. 

Since that is our God-given standard, it behooves us all to take a little time - and a little effort, to put aside our petty differences and simply yield the right of way when it is prudent to do so. It will make this life a whole lot happier, and it will accrue to an eternal reward than none of us really deserve. It's something to think about, isn't it?