Mike and I attended his graduation at Liberty University back in May. Before graduation the next day, we toured the campus and learned we had to make our way to the student center for graduation check-in. We had to stand in line to get the required information and to offer the school whatever details they needed from him. We got in line early and very quickly we were glad we did! Students began showing up and, with eyes wide, joined the ever-increasing crowd of people on the second floor of the student center. We waited for some time and were nearing the door to the check-in location when a group of friends exited the stairs and started making their way to join the by now very long processional of people. They were a close group, as they laughed and stood near each other. One of the friends, a guy, noticed that his other friend had apparently walked through a spider web. He helped his friend remove the sticky web and even the 8-legged visitor! He started to the edge of the balcony to get the arachnid out of the vicinity as quickly as possible (I can’t say I blame him!), but just before he tossed the critter, he realized that if he did, then it had a strong possibility of landing on someone below! The student center was busy with activities since this was graduation weekend, and people were everywhere! He had a look of “I almost messed up!” on his face but laughed and located a trash can to send the creepy crawly out of the immediate space.
I thought about this guy and his response when he realized that his knee-jerk reaction to the spider could put the problem on someone else. He could have literally gotten rid of the spider for himself and his friend, but it would have become someone else’s issue because of his desire for a quick resolution.
How many times have I done something like that? What about you? Have you ever tried to get rid of a problem quickly and, instead of resolving it, just shoved it in someone else’s direction? We can try and toss these “spiders” quickly because they bother us. We want them out of our immediate vicinity, but instead of considering how our “solution” will impact someone else, we just toss them off the nearest balcony, and they land on another person.
Now I realize in some instances, we may not have the skills, or it may not be our role to handle that “spider.” But ignoring it does not make it go away, so maybe we need to bring it to the proper person’s attention.
Other times, we may need to simply squash that “spider” as it may not need to be spread to anyone else.
This guy realized this spider was literally on his friend. He did not ignore the creepy crawly but instead intervened to help his buddy. In that helping, he did not shove the problem in someone else’s direction simply because it was easy to do so. He did not throw that spider off the balcony onto someone he did not know just because he didn’t know them. He chose to handle that spider for a few more seconds while he found a solution that was helpful to all involved (except maybe the spider…)
We may not like the spiders in our lives that cause us problems. It does not give us the excuse to be reckless in our treatment of them because if we just toss them with a “hey, look out below!” mentality, then we risk hurting someone else, and then we have created a spider that can harm another.
