Sometimes people do things that get on my nerves. It's true.
And what really gets on my nerves is when people know their behavior is getting on my nerves, and yet seem unwilling to stop what they're doing.
What's even worse is when someone intentionally goes out of their way to "stick it to me" personally. As if my face (or more likely, my back) has a big red bull's eye spray painted at its center. Times like that make me wonder, "
What did I do to deserve it?"
It's a great feeling when we're singled out for praise, honor and acclaim. But feeling singled out for criticism, contempt and abuse is a completely different thing. Feeling singled out, unfairly treated, picked on, or ridiculed can spark an impulse to strike back and hurt the person we deem responsible for our hurt feelings.
If a person obsesses on all the ways he's been mistreated, victimized and held back, that person is likely to start believing that the only way to
get equal is by
getting even.
Settling scores, paying back, teaching a lesson, putting the shoe on the other foot and getting even all mean the same thing: taking revenge for the hurt we feel we've endured. We may want to take revenge simply to show the other person how powerful, cruel or indifferent we can be: we want to extract our revenge, jab a thumb in the other guy's eye and ask him, "How do you like it now?"
But no matter how we say or phrase it,
taking revenge means
Losing Out. We lose out because settling scores and taking revenge is a sin.
Scripture says so.
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But but but you don't know the situation! You have no idea what it's been like! You don't know everything that's happened to me!That may be true, but remember what happened to Christ after he was arrested that night in Gethsemane? He was slapped, flogged, stripped naked, flailed, spat upon and forced to carry his own cross through the streets to the place where he'd be crucified. Yet even after he was crucified the ridiculing, taunts and insults didn't stop, and a sign was placed on his cross to further mock him:
THE KING OF THE JEWS.
And what happened after Jesus was resurrected? Did he hunt down Judas and teach him a lesson? What about the false witnesses and the temple priests? Did Jesus suddenly materialize in the middle of the Sanhedrin and start teaching the chief priests a lesson? Did Christ ride a lightning bolt down into Pilate's bed chamber, kick him out of bed and start settling the score? No, Jesus didn't do any of those things.
What he
did was tell his apostles "Peace be with you" ... and remind them that all authority in heaven and earth had been given to
him.
Not to thee or to me or to our hurt pride or our feelings.
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.- Romans 12:19
