More Mountain Top Livin'

Enemies and Evil


This week in Mountain Top Livin we are going to look at Matthew 5:38-48 and talk about responding to enemies and evil.


In 9th grade I encountered this guy in PE class who was in 10th grade. One day as we played football he walked up from behind me and hit me. Then he started yelling at me. I don't have the slightest idea why. Didn't know then, never found out later. Then for several days in a row, as we played football the same thing would happen. In between plays of out touch football game he would walk up all tough and mean and push me, hit me and say whatever (I don't remember anything he said, like it really mattered).

He was smaller than me so it was kind of like this little yappy dog bothering me. But, two things kept me from slugging the guy. First, our school had a policy that if there was a fight, both people would be suspended regardless of who started things. I saw several times, people suspended for defending themselves. Second, his friends were all huge! I mean really huge, and when I was a freshman I was 5 foot 9 and 120 lbs. of long distance runner. I knew that if a fight started that his friends were dumb enough to take advantage and beat on a little guy.

At the end of the semester I went into the coaches office for the ceremony of turning in the locker padlock and receiving of the grade. I walked into that little stinky office filled with furniture made of sheet metal from the 1950's and stood before the hulky coach Johnson (coached defensive team in football, wrestling team, and sprinters in track). I handed him my padlock and then waited.

He looked at me and said, "Scheperle, I don't know why you never turned around and clocked that guy. I was waiting for it all year. I would have never turned you in, and you would have never gotten in trouble for it. I am going to give you an A in this class just for self control."

I learned an important less that day. As I walked out of the office I knew that the strongest person was not the one who pushed the other around all year, the strongest person was the one who chose to respond with wisdom and self control.