If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. —C.S. Lewis
It’s when we’re faced with the sudden and unexpected that we find out what kind of person we’re becoming. And while it may be easy to blame any failures or missteps in those moments on the suddenness of the situation, all the suddenness did was give us a glimpse inside ourselves without any facades or disguises. So, when we’re tempted to think everything is OK on the inside, the best test of whether it is or not is a sudden provocation. Will what comes out be what we hoped would appear, or will it showcase other issues that we still need to address?