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The Lord is my Shepherd

As a Christian, I believe that every interaction I have with every single person, either brings them closer to Jesus, or pushes them farther away. Sometimes I fall short. This is about one of those times.
This actually happened fairly recent. I'm not going to get into the details, but a fellow nurse at my work posted something that was meant to be funny. Not only was it not funny, it was highly offensive. I could have just scrolled on down my facebook feed. I could have hidden her post from showing up. I didn't do either of those things. Instead I reacted. I let her have it. Right there on social media for the whole world to see. To which, she promptly emailed me, letting me have it, and then blocked me from responding back.
I was so mad. I felt completely justified in it. I had every right to call her out on that. To let her know that she was wrong. For a few days, I rode the wave of self-righteousness.
After that I started remembering something I heard. Jesus had every right to be offended, and he never was. He had nothing to prove, and only one to please. If you're looking for a reason to be offended, you will surely find it.
I decided I would apologize. Unfortunately I couldn't speak to her on social media because I was blocked. I planned on apologizing when I saw her next at work. The problem with that turned out to be, in the field of hospice, you hardly see your coworkers. I just sort of let it go, and figured someday I would.
One morning I felt God tugging at my heart over this woman. I tried to do other things, but He just kept bringing me back to her. I thought 'I can't apologize to her, how can I? I haven't seen her, and I am unable to speak to her on social media.' He said 'you have a work phone.' That's right! Our employer gave us all cell phones, so I could reach out to her on her work phone. Okay. I told God I would do that, sometime soon.
'Now.'  He said.
Fine, now. I go and texted her number. I simply asked if it were her phone. No reply. Well I reached out to her, she obviously doesn't want to talk to me. I will try again another day. Maybe tomorrow I would call the phone.
'Now,' He said.
Fine, I will just humiliate myself. Who knows if it's even her assigned phone. I apologized. I told her why I reacted, that it was wrong to do. That I regret it. Eventually I got a response back. Kindly telling me she accepted my olive branch, and that she was glad I reached out. I didn't realize how hard I was holding onto that, but once she accepted my apology, I released all that tension.
The very next day, a text was sent out from work. This woman that I just reconciled with, resigned from the company, and it was her last day. She turned in her phone and moved on with her life. God is so incredible. He nudged me that exact day because He knew what I didn't. This was the last chance I would ever have to apologize.
It reminded me that when I'm following the shepherd, He will lead me exactly where I need to go. It also taught me seeking forgiveness from others, is just as important as giving it. Both can keep you from Christ. I'm not sure if our encounter brought her any closer to Jesus, but I know it brought me back to the foot of the cross.

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