“My eyes! Agh my eyes. Maybe learn to take good photos, buddy.”
“People like you are why America is being destroyed.”
Those are a couple of comments that I’ve gotten randomly from people I don’t know. It’s shocking, though, that my first instinct is to take a written scimitar at the people who left them, and it reveals something about my inner man: I like a fight. You see, I have an ego, but it ain’t my amigo.
I have been trying to learn some discernment; to decide when a comment is worth pursuing in the form of dialog, and when it’s most likely safe to simply move on past it. Often, people who leave comments like those above won’t remember that they left them 30 minutes later, because they are not actual, legitimate, substantive remarks. If you ignore them, it’s almost as if you’re casting a spell that causes them to have never existed. (Note: it does help to approach each person as if they are conveying information that you don’t know, and to realize that information is of value. Don’t ignore something merely because it upsets you. Ignore it if it has no value toward the building up, and value cannot be returned.)
Psalms 34:14 says,
“Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it.”
Walking away from a fight is important, and not just because you’re not fighting, but because the time spent not fighting can be spent on doing edifying things. It can be spent helping a friend through an emotional trauma. It can be spent cleaning your room. The options are endless. Online, walking away from a fight can take the form of ignoring comments which are meant merely to tear one down. In person, it can take the form of returning a curse with a blessing instead, and going on your way.
Regardless, it helps to realize that your ego isn’t your amigo, and it often wants to do some scrappin’. Ignore that urge and use the saved time to do something valuable.
With love, always,
—Luke
