A newspaper headline read: NO END TO CYCLE OF REVENGE IN MIDEAST. The article was about a 28-year-old man consumed with avenging his uncle’s death in the wake of suicide bombings and military retaliation. “When someone dear to you is killed,” he said, “you can’t sleep; you have to do something.”
But even after killing two men he considered enemies, he still had no sense of satisfaction. No one can ever win by trying to even the score.
I have a friend, a former CTC student, who today heads up a relief ministry in Israel that ministers to victims of terrorism. He is surrounded by bitterness, hatred, and unforgiveness. Revenge seems the natural response to such feelings.
Romans 12:19 speaks to this issue. Have you dealt with feelings of revenge? How did you overcome such urgings?
Tags: Middle East, revenge, unforgiveness
What do you think of when you read the words of Mr. Donohoe, written in his 1935 will?:
“Unto my two daughters, Frances Marie and Denise Victoria, by reason of their unfilial attitude toward a doting father,…I leave the sum of $1.00 to each and a father’s curse. May their lives be fraught with misery, unhappiness, and poignant sorrow. May their deaths be soon and of a lingering malignant and torturous nature.”
Continuing, he concluded, “May their souls rest in hell and suffer the torments of the condemned for eternity.”
What do you think was going on inside his head and heart? How did this man develop such hatred? If you knew Mr. Donohoe personally, what help could you offfer him?
Tags: hatred, unforgiveness, will