“A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense”.

(Proverbs 19: 11)

Isn’t this quite the statement considering what is a common thread of conversations in today’s culture–at every turn of comments on social media or televised news outlets–”someone is taking offense at “someone” or “something” that’s been said. While I don’t dismiss sincere mean spirited opinions, the bottomline for me is that we’re living, actually cultivating, a generation purposely “looking” at something to be offended by whether it’s from a person, an organization, or a business’ method of operating. 

Years ago when I was a child, I was with my parents on a Friday night; it was the evening of their mixed doubles bowling league. All the teams were made up from City of Saginaw folks. At this time in dad’s career, he had been promoted to a position that required him to supervise a small staff of people. On one Friday night, one of his newer employees brought his wife over to meet dad. After the introduction was made the wife innocently blurted out “Oh, you’re the boss my husband doesn’t like!” I can still remember how I felt when I heard the exchange. I am able to recall dad’s smile and chuckle. I don’t remember him giving her any type of response. He maintained his composure.

On the car ride home I couldn’t wait to ask my dad “how could she say such a thing!” and “aren’t you upset that she said that!” Dad was still calm, retained his composure and responded “not everyone likes their boss” along with “she probably didn’t realize what she was actually saying, maybe she was nervous”. That was my dad, quick to give everyone the benefit of the doubt rather than get angry over something that was trivial to him.

In the past two weeks American Eagle launched an ad promoting their blue jeans. Using Sydney Sweeney as their model for televised ads, they’ve come under some heavy scrutiny for their ad copy which says “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color My jeans are blue.” 

I’ve seen the ad several times. I’m not offended. I don’t have blue eyes or blonde hair. I certainly don’t look like Miss Sweeney. I’m not offended. She looks beautiful in American Eagle’s jeans. Will I purchase a pair based on the ad? Most likely not; I’m not your typical American Eagle shopper at this point in my life.

A popular quote that has evolved in some Christian circles is “there’s a demon behind every bush”. While there’s absolute truth regarding spiritual warfare inside the Christian community, there is no biblical reference that supports this statement. So, I think we can compare quick tendencies to blaming satan for most of the negative behaviors in ourselves or others is akin to the same rapid offenses some people find in everyday conversations, speeches given by our variety of leaders, and in this case–an ad for blue jeans.

In my humble opinion there are more important matters to be offended by than a blue jean ad. For years I’ve been offended by the upsurge in pornography use, human trafficking, disrespect for authority in our schools, and above all, twisting the truth of scripture in order to justify personal beliefs and life choices that are contrary to God’s commands. I like what this man, Russell Moore, says when answering the question “are we living in a post Christian culture?”

“Someone said to me one time, “We just need to get back to where we were before this culture fell apart.” And I said, “You don’t even remember when the culture fell apart, because the culture fell apart somewhere between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers in Genesis 3.” Every generation since then has manifested fallenness and brokenness—just in different ways. There are different challenges in each generation, but they’re always there. Where I would say that we’re a post-Christian society is that we’re a post-pretend-Christian society. There was a previous era when people had a certain basic understanding of biblical truths and some connection to the church. That brought some benefit because, in many cases, there was some sort of stable understanding of morality. But, it also brought a lot of drawbacks because a nominal Christianity doesn’t save.” (source Crossway.org)

When confronted whether to be truly offended or not, my personal response draws from my dad’s gentle wisdom and composure in a seemingly awkward moment. Did that one woman’s description of him define or determine his future as a successful supervisor? I’d have to say, no. I also remember what else dad said in response to her exposing her husband’s dislike for him. “I guess if he doesn’t like me it means I’m doing my job”. 

As Christians, we have jobs to do, too. We were commanded in the book of Deuteronomy to “love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength”.  When we put God first, everything falls into place. When we love God and others with sincere hearts, those around us will experience genuine compassion. When we are determined to be on the lookout for every offense, satan is pleased he was able to distract us from what’s truly important living as authentic Christ followers.