Sulking on the Sidelines

Sometimes people withdraw themselves from friendship and fellowship because of

feeling of offense. Sometimes they become aloof, and withhold themselves from service,

because they feel someone has slighted them, or misunderstood them, or deceived them. And

so, like Achilles, the sulk in their tents and alienate themselves from former associations–but,

more than that, they become alienated from the fulfillment of themselves. Many a man, feeling

unappreciated or imposed upon, has brooded and sulked and sat long on the sidelines when he

might have done much for many, including himself. We all have hurts. We all sometimes feel

slighted. We may feel at times that others are ungrateful. But “in justice to ourselves,” said

William George Jordan, “we should not permit the ingratitude of a few to make us condemn

the whole world.” Nor should we permit the deception of a few, or the injustice of a few make

us condemn everyone. “If a man receives a counterfeit dollar he does not lose his faith in all

money… If a man finds an apple with a suspicious looking hole in it, he does not condemn the

whole orchard. The farmer does not expect every seed that he sows… to bring; forth its harvest;

he is perfectly certain that this will not be so… He is counting on the final outcome of many

seeds.” And he who has had someone disappoint or deceive him should not let the actions of

one man make him condemn all others – and also be unfair to himself and withhold himself

from service. We need to distinguish between people and principles – and remember that no

person is perfect – and not let our hurts keep us from doing what we ought to do, or being

what we ought to be, or serving what we ought to serve – and not sit and sulk on the sidelines,

and withhold what we have, and withdraw ourselves from friends and fellowship. The person

who sits and sulks and withholds himself from service surely hurts others, but most surely, he

hurts himself.