The Lord's servant must not quarrel

It was a very tiring day. My children (aged 9 &4 then) had to take part in literary and other competitions at a place far away from home and we had left early that morning and had come back at around 11.30 pm. All of us were so exhausted that we sank in to deep slumber as soon as we reached home and hit our beds. It must have been a couple of hours later that I woke up suddenly to the noise of metal hitting metal. I wondered what it must be but then there was a pause and I relaxed....After a while there it was.... clank...clank...clank in regular succession. I ventured to look out of the window where the sounds were coming from and there was a lorry parked at the road side and some men were busily unloading huge metal pipes...clank...clank..clank it went. I looked back and the children were being disturbed with the sounds and my wife was also half awake. It was 1.30 am now and I was irritated, perhaps because of the exhaustion the day had brought.

I controlled myself for a while, but their work did not seem to stop even after 15-20 mins. Suddenly, I looked out of the window and shouted out...What do you think you are doing? Don't you have any other work to do? Disturbing people at this time of the night?


This had an immediate effect and the men spoke between themselves and there was quiet. I walked back lazily to my bed and had almost dozed off when suddenly I heard the still small voice of the Lord say to me....."The Lord's servant must not quarrel".

I felt like arguing with the voice, stating my case of exhaustion, how the family needed an undisturbed sleep after a tiring day and the preposterous work timing of the men, but then thought it wise not to argue, for it had been my experience that no arguments with the Lord are ever won. He is always right.


I did not feel happy with what the Lord had said, but there I was...Guilty...I could have done things in a better way...perhaps humbly asked the men not to create so much noise as it was disturbing others or I could have requested them to wait till morning to unload.


The Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, ends Chapter 12 of his first letter by saying...And now I will show you the most excellent way.

He speaks in detail regarding this excellent way in Chapter 13...It's all about love....even if it is 1.30 am in the morning..