There isn’t a single person reading these words who hasn’t been hurt by someone else. All of us can remember someone who planned something, said something, or did something ugly or unfair to us. Because that’s true, all of us can also name a person (or persons) we could blame for something! Recipients of mistreatment rarely forget how much it hurt. And if that mistreatment came at a “down time,” when we were already feeling lower than a whale’s belly and struggling to get back up, the offence hurt even worse.

Because we’ve all gone through such harsh experiences, we should have no trouble understanding how David felt when, already at his lowest, he went through the misery of being pummelled with stones and debris and cursed in public. All of this hate came from a man named Shimei. Through this ugly and vile scene, we can learn much about how to endure mistreatment.