Negative People

“Do not let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.” Romans 12:21 (New Living Translation)

All of us have those people in our lives. You know the ones that I am talking about. They are the ones who make life so difficult and painful for us. They are the ones who slice us in half with just a glance. The ones who make our blood boil with the first three words they speak. The ones who seem to take delight in making our lives a new adventure in hell every time we interact with them. They are the boss or coworker we cannot avoid if we want to be able to keep working so we can have food and shelter for our families. They are the neighbor who seems to just wait for us to step outside so they can strike. They are the family member who epitomizes the old adage, “You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose but you are stuck with your family.”

What do we do with them? (No. Killing them is not a valid option).

What if we can use the negative actions of these people to guide us to positive ones? There are those negative people in my life who have actually helped me. The hurt, anger, humiliation, despair, pain, and other negative feelings and emotions their words and actions have caused provided me with an action manual. If I want to not hurt others then I look at the things this negative person says and does and I do the opposite. Whenever someone’s words and actions have caused me suffering, I can let that pain spur me to a bit of introspection. Are there times that I have spoken or acted toward people in the same or a similar way? If it hurt me, what makes me think it does not hurt others when I choose to act that way toward them?

What if I can let their negative behavior cause me to look deeper into their lives? I believe that to do so will often, if not always, reveal them to be a broken and hurt individual. Does this justify their negative behavior? No. Does this mean that they should just be allowed to run rough shod over people with no consequences or opposition? Again, no. That is not what I am suggesting.

What I am suggesting is that when I seek to understand them, I am in a much better place to avoid hate and intense anger toward these people. Less hate and anger from me translates to less negative energy in our world. This is very important because negative energy meeting negative energy multiplies negativity. However, the more we can meet negative energy with positive energy the more we can cut the power of the negative.

I have included a visual to illustrate my point. The pictures accompanying this post were taken at place called Bedrock Gardens near Epping, NH. The picture above is a scrap pile of old rusted metal on the property. “Junk,” we would normally call it. But the picture below is just one of hundreds of such creations made from the “junk” scattered throughout the garden that turn a great place into an absolutely awesome place. Let’s make our world awesome by finding a way to turn the negative into positive.

Think about it.