"Sometimes, the best response is no response." —Brian Ortega, American Athlete
RESPOND means to say something in reply. In congregations, it is to sing or say something in response to a priest or liturgical leader. In the card game Bridge, respond means to make a bid in answer to your partner's preceding bid. In Architecture, a respond is a half-pillar or half-pier attached to a wall to support an arch. Finally, respond means to act or behave in reaction to someone or something; or to react quickly to a stimulus or treatment.
Viktor Frankl, Austrian neurologist, philosopher, psychologist, Holocaust survivor, and author of the bestselling book "Man's Search for Meaning," said, "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." I can't imagine how someone who has experienced the concentration camps, starvation, slaughter, and burning of friends and family could choose to respond in a way that is joyful, life-giving, and forgiving. Frankl wrote, "“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Notre Dame championship football coach and commentator Lou Holtz once said, "Life is ten percent what happens to you, and ninety percent how you respond to it." The word responsibility can literally be described as the ability to respond, or the willingness to provide a positive, wise, and trustworthy answer. Choices and action in the face of difficulty are so crucial that we call the folks we trust to care for us in such situations, First Responders.
The rest of us have not been trained on how to respond under the pressure like nurses, doctors, and EMT's. Perhaps at times we find ourselves reacting in stressful situations. Reacting is responding with hostility, contrariness or opposition. We are more prone to react when we're tired, hungry, anxious, in conflict, under duress— when we've been accused, or a boundary has been crossed. Even if that is the case with a fellow Believer, the Apostle Peter instructs:
8Finally, all of you, be like-minded and sympathetic, love as brothers, be tenderhearted and humble. 9Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. 10For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. 11He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. 12For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
13Who can harm you if you are zealous for what is good?14But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be shaken.” 15But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. But respond with gentleness and respect, 16keeping a clear conscience, so that those who slander you may be put to shame by your good behavior in Christ. 17For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
With these things in mind...how will you respond? | 
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