I had a really bad experience at a local building supply store a few days ago. Among the many issues was I was going to purchase a 4×8 piece of pegboard, which I would cut in half so I could get it into my car. I would have…except the saw was broken. “No problem,” an employee said. “We’ll deliver it to you.” When they rang up the sale, the price came up way too high. “Oh, delivery is $70.” I said, “There’s no way I will pay $70 for you to deliver a $25 piece of pegboard because your saw is broken. Cancel everything.”

I’m pleased to say that while a wee bit frustrated, I did not get angry. (I think that’s the fruit of the Spirit at work over the last 50+ years!) Anyway, this little parable from Sahil Bloom speaks to it.

A monk goes out on a boat in a small lake to meditate. After a few hours of uninterrupted silence, he suddenly feels the jarring impact of another boat bumping into his.

While he does not open his eyes, he feels the irritation and anger building within him.

“Why would someone do that? Can’t they see me here? How dare they disturb my meditation?”

He opens his eyes, ready to shout at the person in the other boat, only to realize that it is empty. It had come untied from the dock and was floating in the middle of the lake.

In that moment, his anger and frustration disappears. After all, you cannot be angry at an empty boat.

I don’t think the store was out to get me, personally. The store is just poorly run. Sahil writes:

If you convince yourself that every collision is a deliberate action by a bad actor, negative emotions will control your entire life. In others words, your interpretation of the collision creates your own poison.

The Empty Boat Mindset is the reminder that most of these collisions you experience in life are with an empty boat. There is no negative intent. There is no desire to harm. They are simply the random collisions of objects floating along on the lake of life.

So, the next time you feel a collision and find your negative emotions growing, pause and ask yourself a simple question:

Am I just getting angry at an empty boat?

“…your interpretation of the collision creates your own poison.”

Bitterness is a pill you take and hope the other guy dies. – Skip Gray

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. (Ephesians 4.31, ESV)

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled. (Hebrews 12.15, ESV)