One time at work a major client had a poor impression of my boss and actually referred to him a sneaky. This cause lots of struggle for my boss and I remembering him saying to me, "Mike, all you have is your name. You work so hard to build a good one, and then like that it is in question." I could not relate to his pain and found it amusing on one level.
Just this week I found out some news that I don't think I was fairly represented. How do you deal with that? Defensiveness only makes you appear guilty, and then Paul says in 1 Cor. "sometimes maybe it is just better to be wronged". What a powerful tool Satan uses when he allows our name to be dishonored publicly.
This is where the power of story comes in, at least I hope. My hope in this situation is that I understand my own story well enough to communicate it in a non-defensive way. I value the perception someone already has (right or wrong) and make it easy for them to understand my part of the whole. Each one of these important but very tiny pieces we have of story are a part of a much greater story. With this greater story we might know some of the major themes, but we don't know the twists and the turns or even at times how our little piece fits into the whole.
What harm can it do? Sometimes you might just be wronged, you don't have to choose that as a option, but if it happens you can look to God and wink because he said it would happen. Don't run after suffering, it will easily enough find you, when it happens give God a wink or pull on his coat to get his attention because you will need the help to get through it.
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