McDonalds and the Coming Lord

    Today for lunch, as I headed home I decided to drive through the McDonalds right by the office which was a mistake---both for the fat grams involved and because I was the recipient of "McDonalds Rage,"  a phenomenon that occurs only at ones with two drive thru lanes.  There is at least one rule at these two lane McDonalds...you MUST take turns pulling foward..the first one of the two to order moves forward first.  Which, in this case, was me.  However the rude young woman (probably 25-30 in biological age anyway) who was driving a large black SUV of some type decided she wanted to go before me, which would have messed things up.  As I realized she was cutting in front of me, I looked over after I was pretty sure I could pull in ahead of her, and she did that thing with her finger which, well, I don't see aimed at me, so to speak very often.  I ever the educator, rolled down the passenger window to try to explain to her McDonalds etiquette (thinking that most problems in the world can be solved if we just UNDERSTOOD what was going on and changed our behavior accordingly)  Another mistake.   She quickly rolled down her window and inch or two as I tried to speak, and then she very quickly rolled it up made another gesture with her hand and moved her head back and forth, illustrating me yapping at her (hard to describe the hand thing..but if you ever have let your hands talk to each other (what??? you've not????) that was the gesture she was making.  And then she did that finger thing again.  

This does not happen to me everyday.  I have not had one pastor nor anyone at a charge conference flip me off, if you will allow that crude statement.  Ever.  My first uncontrolled reaction was that I was hurt..really, and a tear came.  How could someone treat me this way?  My kids and I experience often, when we are together in the mall or walking down the street that when people of all ages approach me, they smile, even if there is absolutely no smile on my face.  It can be a bit disconcerting...I usually smile back, not because I have to but because I really like people and I want to.  Last night when I went to our eclectic Walgreens at 39th and Broadway an African American woman, middle aged, nicely dressed, turned around and saw me in back of her and said warmly, "Hi Mama"...I quickly realized that she has some mental condition that makes her sound much younger than she is so when I caught up to her, I said "Hi honey," which made her smile sweetly at me, and the conversation was over.

Back to the McDonalds Rage-- I got my food and headed out onto I 70 thinking I had left the young SUV driver in my past..but noooo.  About two miles down the road, a black SUV pulls up next to me and slows down and she gives me the nastiest smile and moved her mouth around to look at she was yapping, and then she pulled away.

Now, how am I supposed to react to this?  My first reaction after tearing up was "Father forgive her for she knows not what she does," but then immediately I thought that blasphemous, since Jesus hanging on the cross and me being treated rudely  at a McDonalds drive in really is not the same at all.  When she drove up beside me, I just looked at her with the best Cox-Johnson look of incredulous, perplexed amazement that someone could be so rude.  Especially to me.

And then later, as I tried to come to some sense of settledness about this I simply said to myself, "Come, Lord Jesus"  And thank God he does.