Article July 24, 1995 Issue

Don't react

Harriette Meldrim Hill

As a young adult, I was apt to lose my temper rather frequently when I felt my indignation was righteous because I was championing a good cause. But as I thought and prayed more about it I discovered that in reality there is no such thing as righteous indignation, because indignation is actually a degree of hatred. It began to dawn on me that instead of being righteous, my attitude might be self-righteous. In dismay, I began to work at overcoming what had become by then a habit of reacting.

One day during that time, I was reading the Bible story of Joseph (see Gen., chaps. 37, 39–50). I saw that his life for many years was one difficult experience after another: He was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers and taken into Egypt; later he was falsely accused and thrown into prison. But Joseph persisted in his love for God and obedience to Him. Through this closeness to God, he was enabled to interpret dreams, and Joseph was taken out of prison so that he could interpret the Pharaoh's dream. As a result of the wisdom he showed, Joseph was chosen by Pharaoh to administer the stockpiling of grain during seven years of bountiful harvest. This provision prevented starvation during the seven years of drought that followed. After his brothers had come from Canaan a second time to buy grain during the drought, he revealed to them who he was. He told them not to condemn themselves for what they had done to him, "for God did send me before you to preserve life" (45:5).

I decided to learn from Joseph's experience and to make an effort not to react anymore. It wasn't easy. All around, I noticed people retorting angrily, drivers loudly honking their horns, people doubling up their fists making gestures at others. But I saw that self-interest, self-will, self-pity, self-love, self-assertion, self-justification—even self-consciousness—are wrong because they lack love, a fundamental quality of God expressed in all He creates, in all that is true. Absorption in its false sense of self is the way of the mortal, carnal mind. It disregards God's law, the law of Love, but this false-hood can be proved to be without power or substance.

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