TOD 10.15.07

Have you ever caught yourself being more proud of your actions than you really should be? Oh, sure, me neither. Like the other day I was driving down Bethany Home toward a stop light, and I saw that a car was wanting to pull out into traffic from the McDonalds. So naturally I stopped a little bit short to give him room to do so.

But just at that moment, the light turned and the cars started going. The driver had just enough time to act, but he hesitated. So I simply went, and I was a bit miffed at him. I had gave him a gift, and he had failed to take it. Sure, I could have waited, but then I’m losing time myself rather than just being courteous. So he had deprived me of feeling good about myself by his incompetence.

That’s when it hit me. A gift that costs me nothing isn’t really much of a gift at all. Sure, it’s better than not giving anything, but just when I had thought myself a generous driver I had to realize I was still putting myself first, even in how I hoped to use another person to feel better about how generous I thought I was.