There's a show on television I've never watched but a dear cousin of mine loves. It's called Revenge. Again, I know not any details. But I do know what a dangerous idea it is, whatever it is, because that's what many of us know all too well.
Revenge.
I read in Proverbs today, "Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips. Do not say, "I will do to others as they have done to me; I will pay them back for what they have done."
Uh, right.
Has any of us ever really been talked about, really been hurt by loose lips, and not for a moment thought of returning fire with fire? Really? In every business, you will find someone who is unhappy with someone, and eventually they will use what they can to hurt the other person. They nag others, push others, pull others until they get the other person to see what they see, right or wrong, true or false.
In every business.
Maybe even especially in the church. Harry Ironside, a pastor, once said, "where there is light, there's bugs."
Read a goodly portion of the book of Proverbs, and one will get an earful, so to speak.
The use and abuse of language is a central concern of the writer or writers of the book. Speech, hearing or silence is mention in EVERY CHAPTER OF THE BOOK. It talks about wisdom, and what makes it, sure. But, for example, chapters 10 through 15 tries to create positive associations with the speech of the righteous.
Marshall Shelley, in his book, "Ministering to Problem People in Your Church," writes about a time in a church where one person seemed to be taking control over, well, most everything. She pushed and pushed a pastor who had been doing extremely well in six years in the church until one day at a prayer meeting, she pointed out that the pastor's views of the Second Coming differed from those of her favorite Christian TV talk show host. The pastor blew.
"I admit it. I lost my cool," the pastor said. "I told her I got my theology from the Bible, not from a blow-dried talking head. I said the trumpet of the Lord will rouse more people than the troupes of well-rehearsed singers with their Christian Musak that puts me to sleep. I admitted I wasn't as attractive as the TV personalities, and I'm sure I'm wrong on a lot of things, including some fine points of doctrine, but I've been called to this church, and I'm ministering as faithfully as I can. Even if I can't compare with other preachers, at least I'm here, I'm yours, and I'm available 24 hours as day."
Shelly writes that the 30 faithful at the prayer meeting were speechless, stunned at the outburst.
Bottom line, the woman continued to push behind the scenes even harder than before. She needled, and she knifed and she did everything she could until she finally found something she could use to get the board to finally see what she believed to be true ... they needed a new pastor. They got one.
The key to all this, obviously spoken of but notoriously difficult to do, is to pray for the person, love on the person, help the person who wants to hurt.
But revenge begins to rear its ugly head on occasion, even if we never wanted such before.
Leviticus tells us this: "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite; but love your neighbor as yourself."
Sounds Jesus like, doesn't it?
While I was writing this, a radio station in California told me this story: A high school student named Harley was arrested last year for burning down a United Methodist Church as an act of revenge because he was upset he didn't get a large inheritance that went to the church instead.
But Pastor Wanda Lancaster didn't pursue charges against Harley. Instead, she forgave him, saying she didn't think Harley would benefit from time in prison. Oh, he had to work off a great deal of his penalty in community service, but he graduated from high school and is now going to college. He also works with the newly built church.
To paraphrase a Capitol One advertisement, "What's in your heart?"
If it's revenge, let the Holy Spirit squash it.
2 comments:
This is a good lesson for me. A guy hit my wife's car (damage but no injuries). By the time I made my claim, he had gotten his car fixed so that there was no sign it had been in a wreck. He then lied to the insurance company saying there had been no wreck; they believed him and denied my claim. I was astonished and outraged at the brazen, unconscionable lie. I thought about how to get even with this liar (still do sometimes, for a moment). Then I realized a few things: 1 - I cannot claim to have been 100% truthful in every facet of my life, so perhaps I deserve whatever punishment I'd like to invoke upon my "enemy". 2 - Hating on this fellow won't fix the car door, but it will wreck my psyche and my digestion! Thanks for the reminder.
Kevin, you're so right. All thinking about it does is harm us, not them. And there's a lot of thems out there. Good word.
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