Bumper Stickers

I was driving down the highway today, and I saw the bumper sticker on the car in front of me.  I am sure it probably has some political motivation to it (only because the other 25 sayings on the car were all political), but for today, I am going to talk about it by itself.

The bumper sticker said, "Who Would Jesus Torture".

Just think about that for a moment.  I did, and I like to think that I learned from it too.  How many of us get angry?  I know that I do, sometimes even more than I would like to admit.  I don't get very angry with the kids, or my husband usually.  Where I get angry is with other people.  Those amazing strangers that I see out in public places.  The way they behave in the store, the way they drive or cut me off, the way they act in public, the way they yell at me in the Post Office. 

Sometimes, I just get angry at the unfairness of it all. 
One of the activities that I sometimes endulge in is the "what if" activity.  I like to imagine what would happen if they actually got what they deserve.  What if the ceiling fell on the person who yelled at me, what if that speeder got in a wreck, what if the store manager kicked them out of the store for bad behavior.  Oh yeah, "what if's" are such a nice dream sometimes.  But then I thought about the bumper sticker, and I wondered if my "what if"s" aren't a way of imagining torture for someone else. 

I wondered if the Savior would want those things to happen to any of His children.  I wondered if perhaps, He knows why they behave that way.  He knows the pain within and without that they are going through.  He knows about their bad day, or week, or even year.  He knows who died, who is hurting who and who is so depressed that they don't want to be here any longer.  He knows all the hurts, pain and sorrow that those poor, unfortunate ones are living with now. 
I began to see that my "what if" game was really not living like the Savior would have me live.  It is not teaching me to be kind, patient, loving and compassionate.  It is feeding the anger within my heart that I am supposed to be repenting of.  It is helping me to behave worse than my potenial would suggest.
So, my challenge to you today is not to play the "what if" game.  I have discovered that I need to be like the Savior inside my heart as well as outside in my behavior.  Only then, can I start to see others as He already knows them to be. 

May we never forget the bumper sticker,
"Who would Jesus torture?"

And may we never be either and active, or an inactive part of another's pain and despair.