When the World Get's Under Your Skin

Scripture Reading: Exodus 32

When the airplane stopped its roll up to the gate the young man behind me stood up and strapped on his overstuffed backpack. Then, for the next ten minutes, while we waited to deplane, he repeatedly turned to talk to his friends behind him. With each turn, he swung his pack into my shoulder pushing me forward.

After freeing myself from his torture, while walking up the aisle of the plane and the ramp into the terminal, the woman behind me kept ramming her rolling carry-on into my heel. When I finally got into the terminal, I was hurrying to get across the terminal to catch my next flight. Large airports made these amazing inventions to help the hurried traveler – moving sidewalks.  They are wonderful. They double your normal walking speed.

For some reason, a whole subset of the human species thinks moving sidewalks were created to help them maintain their sedentary lifestyle.  After all, who wouldn’t want to stand still and not move their legs after sitting on a plane for 14 hours? Okay, I know some people have physical issues that make walking difficult.  I get it. But that’s why they hang these enormous signs that say, “stand on the right walk on the left.” Nevertheless, people get on the sidewalk, stand wherever suits them, park their luggage right next to their body and stare at their phones, and block anyone else who might want to use the sidewalk for its intended purpose.  I’m pretty sure these are the same people who drive (not pass) in the left lane.

Then, I must deal with the groups of people who walk side by side by side by side through the corridors, effectively creating a rolling blockade. They, I assume, have never considered the possibility of walking in a line to allow other people passage through the airport.

Of course, when I board the next flight, I must deal with the people who haven’t figured out they don’t need to bring everything they own on the plane with them. They are convinced that there is one overhead bin for each passenger (there isn’t) and that waiting a few minutes to retrieve a checked bag from the carousel is going to be the end of their existence on earth.

After a while, I begin to think the world woke up that morning and said, “Let’s get Steve.” It is on a mission to irritate me. Or is it?

Before my blood pressure climbs to new records heights, before I lose my temper, before I take up cursing, I need to stop and think things through. The truth is none of those people were out to get me. I’m not even on their radar. I’m just another nameless face they saw and forgot.

These people that irritate me do what they do for a lot of reasons. It may be cultural habits, personality traits, blissful ignorance, accidental clumsiness, total obliviousness, and even self-absorption; but none of it has anything to do with me. They aren’t out to get me.

Further, if I’m going, to be honest, I probably irritated as many people as irritated me. My winning personality, my stylish dress, my eloquent oratorical skills… something about me bugged someone else along the way.

So, before I go postal (an 80’s phrase) I need to see things as they are. First, 99% of what bothers me has nothing to do with me.  It’s not personal. Second, I’m probably unaware of how much I irritate other people. Knowing those two things, I step back, take a deep breath and stop thinking about what the world is doing to drive me crazy and start asking what I can do to make the world a little less annoying for those around me. I ask, “How can I be a blessing and not a burden today.”

I find that that’s a much happier and helpful way to live.