“Stupid idiot!” I exclaimed.

As I was ready to go through the intersection near Central City Mall, a car had made a dangerous and illegal turn in front of me.

Immediately, James 3: 9 – 10 came into my mind. “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.”

I was more shaken by that little word from God than from the near miss! I vividly remember that moment to this day. I immediately realized how wrong I was to curse the other driver.

I believe that afternoon many years ago was a turning point for me. God has been building into me a high value for people.

C. S. Lewis said it best in “The Weight of Glory”:

“It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or weight, or burden of my naighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you may talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and corruption such as you now meet if at all only in a nightmare. All day long we are in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal, Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations, these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. . . your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses.”

NOTE: In case you do not know, C. S. Lewis was not a Morman. He uses “gods and goddesses” to emphasize the eternal nature of Man.