"We seldom get into trouble when we speak softly. It is only when we raise our voices that the sparks fly and tiny molehills become great mountains of contention."
Here
in the Shanghai International District of the Church, our District
President, Stephen W. Dyer, shared an interesting experience in his
recent remarks at District Conference. He confessed that one of the
few things that bother him in China is the lack of order in lines.
When people are queuing, there is a frustrating tendency for people
to cut in line and ignore what Americans generally take as basic
rules.
President
Dyer explained that after one tiring and stressful day, he was
standing in the line for taxis near the Science and Technology
Museum, after having already waited a long time in vain at his office
for a taxi. It was a Friday evening and it was raining — two
bad conditions for finding taxis.
As
he was in line, he felt someone nudging up behind him and immediately
went into defensive mode to prevent line jumping, spreading his arms
out a bit and standing to cut off the easiest route for would-be line
jumper behind him. After all the things that had gone wrong that day,
he didn’t need a line jumper to cause further delay.
He
was surprised when the person behind him didn’t seem to get the
hint and kept nudging against him as if ready to spring in front any
time. President Dyer shifted in response to maintain his blocking
effect.
The
line jumper didn’t back off. Who was this irritating and
annoying person who wouldn’t take a hint? Finally, feeling
genuinely irked, he turned around to see who this rude person was and
perhaps tell him to back off.
What
he saw left him feeling embarrassed and chastened for the feelings
that he had. The person who had been irritating him so persistently
was obviously not attempting to line jump. The reason he was standing
so close was that he needed to stand that close — in order to
keep holding his umbrella over President Dyer.
This
stranger in China had been striving to serve, naturally sharing his
shelter from the rain with a stranger from America. President Dyer
was ashamed to have felt so irritated, and touched by the charity he
had received.
That’s
a scene from the China I love, where the goodness of the people can
easily catch you off guard.
It’s
also a symbol of the Lord’s love for us. His efforts through
other people or various means to shield and protect us in love are
sometimes perceived as threats and irritants that we must block and
avoid. This is especially true for those who are annoyed by
persistent efforts from church leaders or other church members to
help them or bring them back to activity or keep them out of danger,
but it can apply to all of us in other settings.
It
is easy to take offense and misjudge others when their intentions are
quite different from what we assumed. And it’s easy to see the
hand of the Lord in our lives as the work of an irritating line
jumper trying to delay us, when if we would turn around and soften
our hearts, we might be astounded at the help being offered.
By
the way, President Dyer has informed me that the same thing happened
to him and his family at the same taxi queue many months later. This
time they were waiting for literally hours in a cold drizzle. A woman
behind them held her umbrella over his daughter and her friend for more
than an hour. He was again very touched and grateful for this
charitable act.
Jeff Lindsay has been defending the Church on the Internet since 1994, when he launched his
LDSFAQ website under JeffLindsay.com. He has also long been blogging about LDS matters on
the blog Mormanity (mormanity.blogspot.com). Jeff is a longtime resident of Appleton,
Wisconsin, who recently moved to Shanghai, China, with his wife, Kendra.
He works for an Asian corporation as head of intellectual property. Jeff and Kendra are the parents of 4 boys, 3 married and the the youngest on a mission.
He is a former innovation and IP consultant, a former professor, and former Corporate Patent
Strategist and Senior Research Fellow for a multinational corporation.
Jeff Lindsay, Cheryl Perkins and Mukund Karanjikar are authors of the book Conquering
Innovation Fatigue (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
Jeff has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and is a registered US
patent agent. He has more than 100 granted US patents and is author of numerous publications.
Jeff's hobbies include photography, amateur magic, writing, and Mandarin Chinese.