Overcoming Evil
The man in the eighteen-wheeler pulled into the parking area of my dad’s restaurant. He had gotten into the habit of parking his big rig there over the weekends. Dad went out and asked him to move his truck, explaining that his customers needed the area for parking. The man in the truck, who was in his thirties, yelled down at my father, who was seventy-seven at the time, and called him some of the vilest names you could imagine and told him in a profanity-laced tirade that he would not move the truck. My dad turned around and went back into the restaurant without a word.
When I was home visiting a few weeks later and found out about what happened, I was furious – as any son would be. My first instinct was to try and find some way to get even with this guy who thought he could talk that way to my father. I remember interrupting my dad’s telling of what happened and he said, “Wait a minute, let me finish!” It was the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say, that has forever made a greater impact.
A few days later, Dad was up at the restaurant making pies as he did very early every weekday. He was the only one in the building when there was a knock at the back door. A woman was standing there with her little girl. She asked if she could come in and talk. Dad let her in. She introduced herself as the wife of the man who had parked the truck outside the restaurant and had refused to move the truck. It had been moved by this time. It turned out that her daughter was in the sixth grade at the local elementary school. In two days, the sixth grade was scheduled to have a “breakfast graduation party” at the restaurant with their teachers and parents. The woman explained that her little girl wanted to come to her party but was afraid to invite her daddy because of what he had said to my dad. She had asked her mother if she could talk to Dad and see if he would let her daddy in the restaurant for the party. Dad told the mother and the little girl to bring the man and to not worry about a thing – nothing would be said, and they should come and have a good time.
That is exactly what happened. The little girl brought her mom and her dad. My dad served breakfast to the one who had cursed him a few days earlier. Unfortunately, the man never said anything to Dad – never offered an apology or a word of thanks. Perhaps he was embarrassed or ashamed. However, the trucker had to know he was in the presence of a bigger man that morning. And just maybe he came to realize that my dad was simply following the teachings of One who, as a suffering servant, forgives the arrogant and rebellious sin of all of us who will simply come to Him in faith.
“Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” - Romans 12:17-21 (NRSV)
Jim Shelton