Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better

by Brant Hansen

Being offended is a tiring business. Letting things go gives you energy.

I can let stuff go, because it’s not all about me. Simply reminding myself to refuse to take offense is a big part of the battle.

most of the time, whatever it was that we were taking personally, it really didn’t have to do with us. Some

In my experience, people—all people—thrive on being offended. It makes us feel more righteous to get aggravated at the behavior of other people.

We have no idea what is in someone else’s heart.

God knows others’ private motives. We don’t. God knows our private motives. We don’t. We think we can judge others’ motives. We’re wrong.

The study showed that people who are normally very adept at math are suddenly unable to solve a problem when the obvious answer conflicts with their political beliefs.

And since we don’t know, let’s choose ahead of time: we’re just not going to get offended by people.

Oh yes, the heart is deceptive. And that calls for humility above all else, because my heart isn’t deceptive because it fools other people. It’s deceptive because it fools me.

He was less interested in what some Christians thought than he was about his chance to introduce “offensive” people to a God who loves us all and wants to change us all.

Your life will become less stressful when you give up your right to anger and offense.

Forgive in the big things and the small things. Don’t take offense.

Jesus told us we will be forgiven as we forgive others.

I’m not going to be threatened or scandalized by someone else’s immoral behavior.

So what if—just dreaming out loud, here—Christians were known as the people you couldn’t offend?

Removing offense enables us to see people in wonderful, new ways.

Jesus is this way with the most morally embarrassing people. You can’t find a single story in the Bible where He’s so disgusted, so scandalized by someone’s moral behavior, that He writes him off. It just doesn’t happen.