Getting Even

"It's only a small crack...but cracks make caves collapse."

                                                                                                       ~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn

In a world of unspeakable atrocity - Virginia Tech shooting, 9/11, Rwanda, Newtown (take your pick), we must wonder, 'how in the world did we get to this place?'

We are lied to by our leaders to the point where we expect it daily.
We here of constant tragedy on the news.

Vigil at Virginia Tech

And when tragedy or pain or personal hurt invades our lives or a person's life we love, we want to get even.

Granted, in a world where rape, maiming and military slaughter seems to ravage most of the third world - it is difficult to show others the value of forgiveness.
And in our world, when we are confronted with a Newtown Massacre, acts of forgiveness seems to be unjust and even irrational.

Yet, a Christian's strongest weapon to counteract violence, pain and 'non-grace' in our fallen world is, quite simply, forgiveness.
But friend, if you are going to practice forgiveness, you must realize that there is a cost involved.

Honestly, forgiving people may very well be the best way to "get even" with those who have injured us or done something to hurt us.
Rarely can anyone go wrong with being Christ-like to those who injure us in the most hurtful ways. 

On the other hand, if we harbor this pain and let it fester, never forgiving and just moving on, the pain which remains from the injury will cause even more injury.
Just give it time.

I was once deployed to Germany for a short tour in Operational Support of the Active Duty Air Force.
One thing I noticed about Europe was that most of the continent was at one point, a battlefield for some army, for some general, for some country attempting to conquer the next.
In this, it was easy to see unforgiveness as the major recurring theme of Europe.

While Western Europe has seemed to settle down since the end of WWII, with the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, the theme has migrated to Eastern Europe in the fallout. 
Today, what we see raging in their wars and conflicts is simply a continuation of a fight whose roots are in past centuries.
To put it in layman's terms - 'Every atrocity requires and equal and opposite atrocity.'

Is that how you want to live your life?
I don't.

You see, in the flow of revenge, our 'get backs to get even' will NEVER settle the score.
If someone lied and gossiped about you, then yours has to be greater about them to even things up.
We must, be the definition of revenge, give as much pain back as what we have received.
Yet, this is an ever-escalating battle because the score is never even, nor is it settled.

American Cemetery, Luxembourg

I am blessed because I settle all scores; but they are settled the right way.
Not by strength, not by my own power and certainly not by attempting to hurt those who attempted to hurt me or my family.
I'm not the same person I once was, I don't settle scores by pain - for, that is impossible.
They are to be settled in forgiveness and the love of Christ, or these things are never settled at all.

At the very least, forgiveness stops the retribution where people personally hurt one another; and if those you have forgiven don't let go, they just might lay awake at night trying to think as to why you aren't trying to get back at them.
You see, when people hurt others routinely, that's what they expect from others - to be hurt.
When a Christian reverses the trend and ends the cycle, they have difficulty figuring it out because they have never truly experienced grace.

And that's what the Christian should magnify in all things - forgiveness and grace; simply because that's what Jesus has given us and we have received from Him.
Should we give any less to others?

I do realize that forgiveness seems unjust at times; but it was also unjust for Jesus to die on the Cross for the sin He never committed.
Yet, He willing submitted to the Cross for you and I.

We know from living in this fallen world that force works.
Throughout my life, I have watched Jews and Arabs fight one another over perceived wrongs; trying to right each of them with rockets and bullets.
It will never happen.

Material wrong deals with physicals and externals.
True forgiveness deals with the evil which resides in a person's heart.
For example, a person may never get a job back which they wrongly lost; but forgiveness allows them to move on to the greater things which God has planned for their life.

When I was a child, Pope John Paul II was threatened by an attempted assassination.
I can remember the Pope going to the prison where the would-be assassin was placed and forgave him for his malice.
At the time, I wondered if his forgiveness was real; for, I had never experienced anything like that before in my young life.

I have come to understand as a grown, Christian man, forgiveness matters or we have absolutely no hope of living together peacefully in this life or in the next life throughout eternity.

There are several things I remember from my childhood about forgiveness and grace.
None of which were easy to forgive, but points the arrow to the path of grace.

I remember, when I was merely 10 years old in 1983, the same Pope visited his home; John

Paul II arrived in Poland, who was at that time controlled by the Communist Soviet Union.
I can barely remember any news stories about it; but it happened.
In an act of civil defiance, hundreds of thousands of Poles participated in a public, open-air mass; it was also a criminal act at the time considering the Communist Bloc was officially atheist. 

Later that same day, those same people, influenced by the Pope's anti-communist stance, marched right by the Communist Party building.
As they marched, thousands of people were chanting, "We forgive you..."
It was as if they were saying, 'We don't even hate you for what you've done; God is bigger than you and you're not worth it.'

How could they be sincere?
The same way millions of blacks were sincere in singing 'We Shall Overcome,' under the leadership of the man millions of whites called, "Martin Luther Coon."
In Dixie, there weren't atrocities in retribution when blacks first gained the vote and then later became political powerhouses, occupying offices from police officer to Congressman.
And in Poland, there weren't millions of communists executed on the streets day after day.

No, whether it is the Communists, the White Supremacist, the Nazi or the man down the road who sought to injure you or may even continue to do so; retribution cannot be the answer or the pain will never stop but continue on.

Most of those who read this blog can remember the Cold War.
When I was a child, like millions of others, I believed that it was possible that the Cold War and arms race was going to end in a great nuclear fire.
Television airing movies supporting this theory and preachers teaching congregations the 'Evil Empire' had their fingers on "The Button" didn't help my confidence in making it to the 1990's.

But the Cold War did not end in a nuclear fire destroying the planet; instead, it ended in the fires of the flickering candles of the Christians, who left their churches and made their way to the streets throughout Eastern Europe.

I watched on television the night the Berlin Wall fell; I was a teenager and couldn't believe it.

That wall, which was constructed under the armed guard of the Communists, began to teeter because at first, a few peaceful Christians demanded reform in East Germany.
From the few came millions who protested the same.
The Wall fell and later, Germany was reunited under the watchful eye of the Europeans it once sought to control.
Yet, there was not one shot fired and the former enemies of the Germans, cheered them on in their quest to restore themselves.

And from this one wall falling, new powers arose in Europe; new politics began to form for the future.
In 1989, ten nations and 1/2 Billion people joined in non-violent revolutions. 

And the credit goes to Christians who persevered under death threat in the house churches and underground meetings throughout Europe.
To acknowledge their sacrifice, in Leipzig, a banner was hung near St. Nikolai Church, which read: Wir danken Dir, Kirche

Roughly translated:       "We Thank You, Church"

If you're in the Underground tonight, keep mind that God's power in His grace is how we must overcome.
While many of us will never experience what you are experiencing, know that we're praying for you and love you; you too will be vindicated in Christ as those in Europe were in the 1990's.

But whether it is a person in the Underground, under a threat of death or a person who is having their livelihood and integrity threatened, the most human thing we do is lash out against them.
Yet, this is where Christian maturity and Christian action meet in our lives.

Due to the fact that it goes against human nature, forgiveness must be taught and practiced; not just today, but every day.
Not just in words or prayers; but also in deed and acts.
For, the greatest gift a Christian can give the 'Get Even, Get Back' culture in which we live, is to simply forgive others in the grace and power of God.

Until next time, win one for the good guys.