“It is more honor to bury an injury than to revenge it.”
Thomas Watson
During the Korean War, two American soldiers
were stationed a long distance from the conflict and were allowed to rent an
apartment off base. They hired a local Korean boy to do their housekeeping, and
were immediately impressed with his positive, joyful spirit…so they began
playing pranks on him. They nailed his shoes to the floor, put water buckets
over doorways, smeared grease on stove knobs. And the boy would smile and pull
out the nails, dry himself off, clean off the stove, with never a word of
complaint. Finally, they became ashamed of themselves and told him they would
stop their pranks. He said, “You mean, no more nail shoes to floor?” “No more.”
“No more water over door? No more grease on stove?” “No more.” He smiled again
and said, “Okay, then, me no more spit in soup.”
That story came to mind recently as I read
about the social media war between Bette Midler and West Virginia Governor Jim
Justice. Revenge is enticing. It’s hard to be a person of peace.
In December, Midler had tweeted that West
Virginians were “poor, illiterate and strung out” in response to West Virginia
Sen. Joe Manchin’s opposition to President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan. To
her credit, she later apologized, though she should never have said it.
But that didn’t keep West Virginia Governor Jim Justice from taking a shot a Midler
during his State of the State address. At the end of his speech he lifted up his
family’s bulldog, Babydog, showing off her derriere, while saying, “Babydog
tells Bette Midler and all of those out there, ‘kiss her hiney’.” Of course, Midler
had to respond by shooting another tweet back.
It’s embarrassing when leaders and
celebrities behave like childish junior-highers. No one is surprised
when a junior higher has a potty mouth – they’re an adolescent. Governor
Justice is seventy years old and has been elected governor twice. Bette Midler
is seventy-six and is a world-renowned singer and actress. Isn’t it time for
these two to grow up?
Tragically, crudeness, childishness are too
often the normal fare of those in the limelight when someone disagrees with
them. None of this is new but it does seem to be growing worse. Consider though
what might have happened, if instead of taking a potshot at Bette Midler, the
Governor had thanked her for her apology and invited her to visit West Virginia
to use her influence to assist the State in combatting their poverty and drug
crisis?
As believers, we cannot keep a lost world
from wading in the mud but we are to be different. While it’s socially
acceptable for pagans to use slurs, insults, and slander – it must not be true
of the people of God. We are not to fight fire with fire. Perhaps in the day in
which we live one of the most powerful and challenging passages in Scripture is
Romans 12:14, 17-21:
“Bless those who persecute you;
bless and do not curse them. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought
to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it
depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge
yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance
is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ To the contrary, ‘if your
enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for
by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome
by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Frederick
Buechner wisely defined anger: “Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the
most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to
roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to
savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you
are giving back—in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback
is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.”
Please understand, I’m not suggesting that we are to be Christian
doormats, but we are to be the people of grace. We are to be the ones who turn
the other cheek, who don’t have to respond to every slam or insult.
Why? We have something that they don’t
have. We can tell Daddy what they’ve said and done. The best way to handle our critics
and opponents is to “Tell our Father” and leave it all with Him. Let God be their
judge, while you offer longsuffering kindness. But you can’t do this alone, you
must ask the Spirit to help you. Let Him miraculously work through you.
Corrie ten Boom, the famous Holocaust
survivor and committed Christian experienced this miracle. Here’s her story in
her own words.
“It was at a church service in Munich,
Germany, that I saw him, the former S. S. man who had stood guard at the shower
room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our
actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all
there—the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, my sister’s
pain-blanched face. As the church was emptying, he came up to me. ‘How grateful
I am for your message, Fraulein. To think that, as you say, [God] has washed my
sins away!’ “His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so
often the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side. Even as the angry, vengeful
thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for
this man; was I going to ask for more? ‘Lord Jesus,’ I prayed, ‘forgive me, and
help me to forgive him.’ I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I
could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so
again I breathed a silent prayer: ‘Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your
forgiveness.’ As I took the man’s hand, the most incredible thing happened.
From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from
me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed
me. And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our
goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on God’s. When God tells us to
love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.”
Christians
are the forgiven ones. We have experienced grace! We must be the ones who share
His grace and forgiveness just as we have received it!
Can
we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out
more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at
262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life,
I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My
Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy.
Please include your mailing address.
