Hello ,
My dad used to say something to me that always caught me off
guard.
The older I get though,
the more I understand it’s meaning.
“What good will that do?”
He
would almost always ask me this simple and pointed question whenever I laid out a plan of action towards someone who I felt had mistreated me.
I can still recall being on the receiving end of something that I thought was truly unfair.
Someone I cared about had treated me in a really hurtful way.
Through my young and immature lens, I looked for a path that I thought would help them to feel what I was feeling.
I wanted them to experience a measure of my own suffering.
Maybe then, they could appreciate how much they had wounded me.
I laid out my plan to make that happen, and my dad (in his quiet way), looked down at the ground and softly uttered those words.
“What good will that do?”
It
grabbed me by the emotional collar and forced me to look at the possible end results of lashing out at someone else…especially someone that I cared about.
To my detriment, I rarely looked at the “end-game,”
when trying to hurt another in the same way that they had hurt me.
I failed to recognize that life has a way of dealing with anyone who is hurtful, unforgiving, and thoughtless towards another person.
“Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling.”
“Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.”
When we seek angry retribution, we’re usually attempting to set things right in a way (that may feel justified in the moment), but is really not ours to exercise.
When we DO choose it, it almost always comes with a backlash of consequences.
What goes around, comes
around; and our involvement in attempting to make it go around faster (or harder), usually doesn’t help.
Vindictive behavior won’t make it better.
Verbal assault doesn’t set it right.
Physical pushback shouldn’t ever be considered, unless defending oneself or their loved ones, and no other option exists.
If we live long enough, we learn that personally “punishing” someone else usually isn’t necessary, and doesn’t make the situation better, anyway.
Life has an uncanny way of allowing us to watch what happens when we forgive, love, and treat others as we would like to be treated, and only our Heavenly Father can help us to do that correctly, from the
inside-out.
Have a great day and God bless!
Pastor Mike / The Open Word
