day 2643: Thick Skin

“I offered my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mockery and spitting.”

Ross Perot died yesterday. He was a billionaire who started Perot Systems and ran for President.  He was many things good and I met him once in Dallas in a supermarket and he was as nice as anyone could be.  What I always marveled about him though was just how thick-skinned he was.  Nothing ruffled him and even when attacked, he was a gentleman.  It takes a thick skin to be as much in the limelight as he was and to not lose what it means to be decent, caring and responsible with your own actions.

Imagine what it was like to be Jesus when He had to take the ridicule, verbal and physical attacks and the demeaning actions that others took to tear Him down.  Like Isaiah, He didn’t break or stoop to the low-level of the others.  He had thick skin and maybe part of what we are to have to be more like Him is our own thicker skin.

Reference: Isaiah 50:6 (New Living Translation)