No Need for Bullying – Morning Devotions

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Transcript

A truck driver is sitting in a crowded roadside cafe ready to eat his lunch. It’s not just any cafe and any lunch, it’s his favourite place and his favourite lunch.

Just as the waitress brings him a meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans, a motorcycle gang swaggers in the door. Most of them seat themselves at the table next to the truck driver, but there’s not room at that table for all of them. The gang members who are left standing turn to the truck driver and say, hey, move, we want that table. The driver calmly says, I haven’t finished my meal yet, and one of the motorcycle toughs takes his dirty finger, he swipes it through the mashed potatoes and gravy, sticks his finger in his mouth and says, “hmm, not bad food”. Another gang member takes the truck driver’s cup of coffee and pours it over the remaining food on the plate and says, “You’re finished now”. Well, he stands up, takes his napkin, wipes his mouth, walks to the cash register, pays for his meal, and silently walks out the door.

All these tough bikies are laughing now, and one of them says, “Not much of a man, is he?”, And the waitress says, “Well, he’s not much of a truck driver either. He just backed his big rig over all your motorcycles”.

We might have a chuckle at how that story ends. These tough guys got what they deserved payback time for bullying. Jack Hanley wrote the book Fuzzy Memories, and tells the story of a bully who demanded his lunch money every day when he was a child. Jack Handley was smaller than the bully, and he simply gave the bully his money. “Then I decided to fight back”, he said. “I started taking karate lessons. The instructor wanted $5 a lesson, that was a lot of money back then. I found it was cheaper to pay the bully, so I just gave up karate”. Well, that’s an interesting way out, isn’t it? Give in. Take the easy way out.

Now Sometimes we fear that others are out to get us, and if we are Christians, we can become defensive at that. Back in the 19th century, Thomas Huxley was a famous agnostic. He once joined a house party where they planned to go to church that Sunday. Huxley said to a member of the group, “Suppose you don’t go to church. Suppose you stay at home and tell me why you believe in Jesus”, and the man felt a bit intimidated. “Well, with you and your cleverness, you could demolish anything I might say. I don’t want you to argue. I just want you to tell me what this means to you”. So the man in a very simple way told from his heart what Jesus Christ meant to him. When he was finished, there were tears in Thomas Huxley’s eyes, and you know what he said, “I would give my right hand if I could only believe that”. How true it is that not all bullies have bad motives. They just need to be handled differently with some care and grace.

When you think about it, bullying has been around as long as children have lived. Often we minimise or ignore it, and we say, ‘Well, look, they’ve all got to go through it’. I was bullied as a kid. It does build character. But over the last few decades, research has come out that indicates being bullied has enduring negative mental and physical health consequences that can last throughout adulthood.

Today, online bullying is occurring at an escalating rate. It’s not just in the playground or classroom. It can be for a young person on their phone or their social device. A young person can experience horrible bullying on their phone and the ramifications from this are quite well known, and reports have shown, for example, that more than 50% of young people have been cyberbullied, so it’s a nasty experience.

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Adults can be bullied as well. If you’re facing a bully today, can I suggest a couple of steps here? God doesn’t want you to live under this kind of intimidation. He wants you to overcome this through His strength. After all, you were created in God’s image, handcrafted by the Creator of the universe, and your worth doesn’t come from what others say. It comes from what God says, and He says you are significant. You don’t have to see yourself as a victim. Let your peace and lack of anger speak louder than their aggression.

Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father, I know there are bullies out there who make life miserable for people. I pray for those who feel a sense of intimidation. May you help them, Lord, to just stand firm and to not let their lives be shaped by what bullies say about them or to them. May your peace and grace be with them and show them the way out. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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