Today, I want to share a beautiful story about an incident that recently happened at the March for Freedom in Ottawa. It was reported on some social media like Tweet or Tic-Toc or something – which I don’t follow, so it was recounted to me verbally. It brings tears of joy to my eyes every time I think of the huge heart the trucker demonstrated in the exchange of “civilities” between him and another person.
So the trucker was approached by this guy, who insulted him, let fly verbal abuse and was visibly looking for a fight. But the trucker kept gently replying,
— I won’t fight you, this is a peaceful march for the freedom of earning our living, serving the whole population with the goods we carry, and which would not reach them if we are stopped from driving our trucks! We don’t want having mandates put upon us that prevent us from carrying the food that people need! We don’t want any violence!
At that point many people started coming closer, listening to the exchange, and he continued,
— We just want to be free to live in peace with our neighbors, cooperating with each other, we are all one people!
And then he noticed that the guy was shivering, seemed to be cold, so he handed him his gloves, saying,
— Take these, you look very cold…
And immediately, another man from the crowd took off his jacket, and went up to the trouble-maker, handed it to him saying
— This will warm you up…
The man took it, looked around at the crowd and at the trucker, not knowing quite what to do, and
— “Why are you doing this?” he mumbled, gave back the jacket and the gloves, and slunk away.
Isn’t that a most beautiful, empowering story? Teaching us that even when we’re attacked in some way, if you meet the abuse with genuine understanding and compassion in your heart, it’s entirely possible you will disarm the abuser, call forth those same qualities in him. At the very least, stop the potential conflict. Because everyone has the spark of Godliness within; but it is sometimes covered by so much anger, fear, resentment, and unhappiness that God has a difficult time surfacing.
