There is always an opportunity to glorify God if we will just open our eyes and look. And likewise, there is always an opportunity to glorify our adversary if we choose to as well. As I teach my students, you will either glorify God with your actions or your adversary. It’s always “either or” when you boil it all down to the basics. Only one will prevail.


Perfect example.


I was traveling. It was one of those long trips – which meant a long day ahead of me. On the first flight, I noticed that the flight attendant serving beverages did not seem too enthralled with her job. In fact, her outward facial appearance suggested that she would much rather be somewhere else. Her attitude when filling drink orders matched her facial expression. She was standing next to me, doing her job, when she allowed a drink to overflow from the cup – which in turn, flowed down like wild rain onto my pants.


Now, I had a decision to make. Glorify Christ or glorify the adversary.


If I had told her that she should have been more responsible and that she was lucky to have a job and that she would be getting a dry-cleaning bill from yours truly, my flesh may have been slightly satisfied but my pants still would have soda on them and I would still be wet. Worst of all, the adversary would get the glory.


Instead, I asked her to pass me a napkin. She did not. Instead, she wiped down the seat where I sat as the liquid penetrated my pants and now my skin was wet. It began to feel personal – even though it wasn’t. She just didn’t want to be there.


Nevertheless, she was indeed making it a bit more difficult than I had wanted to deal with on the first of three flight segments to my journey. Nevertheless, I reached onto her cart, got napkins and blotted my pants. She snarled at me. Eager to move on to the next passenger, she blankly stared at me and simply said “you okay here?”, to which I replied, I’m fine. It will dry.


Now, had this been a few years earlier when I was much younger in my walk with the Lord, I guarantee you the conversation would have been much different in a not-so-good kind of way. But, thank God for growth. Instead of yelling and making a fuss, I remained calm, took care of the soda spilled on my pants and on the seat and then proceeded to wrap myself up in my coat so that with my body heat, my pants would dry quicker. God got the glory.


Every day we wake up, we have a choice to make about how we will respond when things happen or when people act as people do. I urge you to consider your responses and choose to glorify God.