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It was a cold day in February of 2015 when Matt Buckland boarded the already-crowded subway en route to his London office. At one of the later stops, a young man who was evidently having a bad day got on the train.
But that young man’s day was about to get much, much worse.
When the young man, who will remain unnamed, got onto the train, he made his way towards Buckland who was simply minding his business during the Monday morning commute across the UK’s capital. Unfortunately, the young man thought Buckland was in his way, so he shoved him, and just to make sure Buckland knew it wasn’t an accidental bump, the young man turned to him and said, “Go ______ yourself!” (You’ll have to guess what word goes in the blank.)
By the way, that statement means the same thing in England as it does in ‘Merica.
That was the end of the unfortunate exchange, and both men steered clear of one another for the duration of the ride. The easy-going Buckland, an executive at Forward Partners, had bigger fish to fry than this young punk…and the young punk had to get his mind ready for an upcoming job interview he had later in the day.
But within a few hours, the young man who had cursed at Buckland on the morning train was cursing at himself when he walked into the job interview and found Buckland sitting behind the desk.
Umm…did it just get awkward in here?
Yep, the young punk was staring at the same man he’d seen on the subway that morning. Buckland broke the silence with the greatest line ever uttered in a British accent: “Did you have a good commute this morning?”
Buckland, who serves as recruiter for his company, couldn’t go into other details about the interview, but did inform reporters that the young man didn’t get the job. “He wasn’t quite right for the job,” Buckland claimed.
The young man could have benefited from the wisdom found in James 1:19-20 when Jesus’ own brother reminds us:
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
The young man paid a high price for his anger that day. Let’s learn an important lesson at his expense.
Click here for the online report.
Topics Illustrated Include:
Anger
Awkward
Bad Decisions
Consequences
Embarrassing
Job (Work)
Justice
Mistake
Regret
Revenge
Rude
Sinful Nature
Stupidity
Vulgarity
Wisdom
Work
(Resource cataloged by David R Smith)
