Giving Grace and the Locus of Personal Control: The Duality of Man

I was taking a flight to Riyadh early in the year. And not sure what it was with this flight. It was full of older South Asian ladies. It seemed like they had never been on a plane before. Invading my personal space. Blocking the aisle talking to each other as people were boarding. Two of them actually took my seat and sat in my row until the attendant checked their ticket and they realized it was on the other side. 

The old me would have raged and probably started yelling at them. The new me, more Christian & more relaxed me, just breathed a few deep breaths, shook my head and smiled. Everyone is on such a trigger edge now, angry and so quick to fight especially since 2020. I’m trying not to add to this. 

I’m trying to be more patient & tolerant. To give people grace even when they don’t deserve it. I’m trying to be more Christ-like. Job-like forbearance. 

But don’t mistake this for weakness. To anyone who pushes too far, unreasonably and too aggressively, I will hit back. I’m not yet there at the “turn the other cheek” level yet. There are limits to tolerance and patience, something modern Western culture has taken too far. You only need to look at the deterioration of law and order across Western Europe & many Blue States in America. Weakness only emboldens bullies and criminals. 

As the ever wise Richard Cooper says: “You can't call yourself 'peaceful' unless you are capable of decisive & lethal violence. If you aren't capable of violence, then you aren't peaceful, you are harmless. Very important distinction there.” (Source: https://x.com/Rich_Cooper/status/1889419414061142349)

A man should be capable of incredible violence  but also a high level of compassion. The point is to have the capabilities but also have the judgement and emotional control. Something I’ve worked on my entire life doing.