Hit and Run

NOTE: To my friends reading this... i just wrote this and i need your in-put. is this easy to read? did you like it? it is too long? tell me what you think. thank you.

Hit and Run

I did a ‘hit and run’ on a blog the other day. I was flipping through blogs and I came across one I wanted to comment on. My comment, although contrary to their point of view, was polite and respectful. But the truth was, I didn’t want to here their come-back justification defending their point of view. I just blew in, stated my words and blew out. My words, however, may have had an impact, either giving them something to consider or just making them angry. Plain and simple, it was a hit-and-run.

People do hit-and-runs all the time. Not an actual hit-an-run in a vehicle, you understand, but a verbal one or one of gestures or actions. Situations where people say things or do things that hurt your feelings or made you angry – and in a flash they were gone. A stranger cutting you off in traffic. If you hadn’t slammed on the brakes fast enough, you could be dead. It makes me angry that they risked my life because they were in a hurry. And now that stranger is gone…I can’t even vent my anger at them. I stuck with that anger in me. A perfect hit and run. Or a friend saying, “well you do have a problem with selfishness” as they walk out the door. Said so matter-of-factly, as one might say, “isn’t it a nice day.” And then they are gone. Hit and run with words.

A hit-and-run leaves damage behind. They blow in, make the hit, whether it be actions, gestures, on a blog or the words you speak. They leave behind anger, hurt, frustration.

What I have learned is this: The hit-and-run person is long gone. Very often they don’t even know they did something wrong. I’ve went up to friends and said, my feelings were hurt when you did this or that and they as so apologetic, saying “I am so sorry. I absolutely did not intend to hurt you. I had no idea that would hurt your feelings.” There are hundreds of reasons why that could be. The one I think is most common is they haven’t walked in your shoes, so they have little comprehension or compassion to where you are coming from.

To the thing about a hit and run is, it’s over for them from the minute it happened. They say it and they are gone, never to think about it again. But for you, it continues and the only way to become free is to forgive. They will never even know that you have forgiven them. Often they don’t even know they did wrong. I’m sure you have heard that “forgiveness is not for the other person, forgiveness is for you.” And you can see, by the hit and run, how true this is.