![\"brownpaperbag\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/485\/2015\/05\/brownpaperbag.png\")
<\/a>Most of the\u00a0comments I receive on my blog posts are benign.<\/p>\nI would say the vast majority enhance my thoughts about\u00a0what I write whether they are kind, encouraging, thoughtful, critical or even hopelessly pedantic.<\/p>\n
What is not so run of the mill is to get startlingly nasty comments like the one I recently received from a reader with the inappropriately innocuous, cutesy name of \u201cniknak.\u201d<\/p>\n
niknak\u00a0wrote:<\/p>\n
Some priests and nuns are special. You desperately want to be. It\u2019s not the same thing at all. It\u2019s not even a path towards it.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
After reading this delightful jab I thought, \u201cWow, no wonder some of my fellow bloggers have banned the combox.\u201d<\/p>\n
But then, like a prickly thorn in my thoughts, I began to be prodded by this ugly comment. I thought, \u201cIs this person right, do I desperately want to be special? If I am honest with myself\u00a0I do <\/em>want to be considered special\u2026and sometimes I do desperately<\/em> want to be special, depending on what is going on in my life at that moment\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u00a0lies\u00a0the art of trolling.<\/p>\n
There is always a seed of truth in the most vicious of comments, a seed that is sewn\u00a0in the same way a false psychic predicts the future, a seed that burrows into the writer\u2019s\u00a0mind far after they hit the \u201cdelete\u201d button. A seed the troll\u00a0hopes will bloom into a bitter poisonous flower in the other person\u2019s\u00a0soul, a twin to the dark blossom in his or her\u00a0own.<\/p>\n
At first the question rolled around in my head as I beat myself up for the ways in which the troll\u2019s observation was true. But then I brought my\u00a0question to prayer knowing that God\u00a0would not treat me as badly as I treat myself.<\/p>\n
And I received a pretty quick answer:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do<\/em> want to be special Theresa, just like every other human being the world. And guess what? You are<\/em> special.<\/p>\n
And so is niknak.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And so is niknak.<\/p>\n
I repeated that sentence in my head with the mocking anger of a two-year old.<\/p>\n
So is niknak.<\/p>\n
How incredibly annoying.<\/p>\n
I suppose this can be\u00a0one of the most frustrating\u00a0aspects of the spiritual life. When \u00a0I bring my problems to God, he always has this offensively\u00a0empathetic and generous perspective of the person I find to be quite intolerable.<\/p>\n
Of course, when I have really been seriously wronged by another person, I do feel that God \u201ctakes my side\u201d in the sense of what is just. But then, I still know that no matter what that other person has done he or she\u00a0still has\u00a0the opportunity to\u00a0repent and receive God\u2019s forgiving and compassionate\u00a0love.<\/p>\n
God\u2019s merciful attitude can be annoying, or in the case of persons who have seriously wronged us, downright maddening.<\/p>\n
But I suppose in truth we\u00a0have to be grateful knowing that there is a little niknak in all of us.<\/p>\n
Or at least most of us.<\/p>\n
When one of my superiors in the convent did not have a working hearing aid, she would vocalize her thoughts aloud to the chagrin of everyone around her. She would even go through her examination\u00a0of conscience out loud. To my\u00a0surprise however, even when the sister\u00a0was totally unaware that she was thinking out loud, her\u00a0thoughts were always incredibly kind and generous. She would whisper things like, \u201cOh sister is snoring\u00a0in chapel. She must be so tired, poor thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
I remember commenting to my sisters that if I<\/em>\u00a0had the unfortunate habit of thinking my thoughts out loud I would lose all\u00a0my\u00a0friends in less than\u00a0a day.<\/p>\n
I may not leave my most icy, bitter and merciless thoughts to burn like a bag of dog poo on the internet porch of my unsuspecting enemies, but I do think thoughts like this\u2014everyday.<\/p>\n
So in the end, I am glad that God thinks that both niknak and I are\u00a0special.<\/p>\n
\u2014<\/p>\n
If you are still in need of some encouragement to consider trolls with more empathy, I highly recommend listening to this episode<\/a>\u00a0of This American Life. Changed. my. life. Warning, there is language. If you prefer the bleeped version, it\u2019s here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most of the\u00a0comments I receive on my blog posts are benign. I would say the vast majority enhance my thoughts about\u00a0what I write whether they are kind, encouraging, thoughtful, critical or even hopelessly pedantic. What is not so run of the mill is to get startlingly nasty comments like the one I recently received from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2071,"featured_media":2218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,17,95,1],"tags":[428,425,1064,260,426,427],"class_list":["post-2211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-inspire-me","category-prayer","category-uncategorized","tag-gods-mercy","tag-internet-trolls","tag-prayer","tag-this-american-life","tag-troll","tag-trolling"],"yoast_head":"\n
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