So there I was, driving down the Newtownards Road on a sunny Tuesday morning, feeling righteous as I let the lady in the white car out in front of me. She then wanted into the right hand lane, but the cars couldn't see her indicator. Wanting to be helpful, I pulled over six inches to the left, and heard a thud behind me. The cyclist that had been trying to undertake me wasn't pleased at the loss of the six inches between me and the footpath. He thumped the car on his way past, and mouthed something in the window at me. "Open your eyes, you stupid cow!"

In a few seconds, my serenity was shaken. Somehow it was my fault for not seeing him coming, although I had looked in my mirror not twenty seconds before. My fault, for not expecting him to be overtaking on the inside. Someone was telling me I was in the wrong. And I hate to be wrong. I wound the window down and shouted to him about undertaking and that I have to look out the front windscreen sometimes. "I can't have eyes everywhere, you fool."

I wound up the window and drove on. Feeling sick now. How quickly everything can change.

A few more seconds of righteous indignation, and then, deep inside, I heard those words, ringing in my head: Jesus teaching that the one who says "You fool" is liable to the fire of hell; the one who is angry with brother or sister is liable to judgement just like the one who commits murder. Murder? I was glad not to have killed the man. But as he undertook me again farther down the road, still mouthing something I couldn't hear, I knew beyond all doubt: I had made an enemy.

One minute I was a happy, sunny person on the way to a prayer meeting. Next minute, I was a potential killer… and I was angry. Angry, if I'm honest, because the cyclist had taken away my sense of being a good person.

That's exactly what Jesus did to the religious people of his day. Challenged their complacency and self-righteousness. He wasn't being a "moral relativiser" when it came to murder, but pointing out that the hearts of the name-callers were no better inclined than the hearts of a murderer, even if their actions were significantly less bloody. Small wonder they crucified him.

So I wonder, when those of us who find ourselves angry at the wheel, especially when someone is trying to cut in or jump the queue, consider those who have committed acts of murder or been involved in acts of terrorism, how should it change how we engage with them? And how should it change the way we worship?

Cheryl Meban

The Centre's latest resource, Power and Providence: Studies on the Book of Esther is now available online (click here) or by contacting Anna Rankin.

We are pleased to recommend "Christianity: the encounter with modern culture", a six week course by Prof. David Livingstone and Prof. Stephen Williams beginning in September at the Institute for Christian Training. For further details go to http://www.union.ac.uk/ctnet/culture.html