RSVP

I was invited to a baby shower for the daughter of a friend I haven't seen in ages, and I neglected to RSVP. A few days before the affair I found a message on my machine from her asking if I was planning to come, and saying it's been a long time and she would really love to see me again. I called back and apologized and said I would be there.

I was amazed at Beth's humility. The normal response of a person in her shoes would have been anger or bad thoughts toward me for being inconsiderate enough not to respond to the invitation. A better person might have foregone anger but reevaluated the friendship and perhaps quietly written me off, never to contact me again. Beth would have been within her rights.

No one would criticize a person for acting according to his rights. The Apostle Paul made that clear in his awkward letter to the Corinthians on the matter of his financial support from churches. But what a far more excellent thing when a person, aware of his rights (to be financially supported, to be angry at a non-RSVPer), does not grasp or think about his rights but humbles himself before his offender and continues to love. One thinks of Abraham's lowering himself to offer his clueless nephew Lot first picks of the Promised Land real estate.

"Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself, but, as it is written: 'The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me'" (Romans 15:2,3).

It's enough to make you humble yourself before the next person who does something rude to you.