Vengeance

It might be the Arnold Palmer Tallboy talking, but I seem to get angrier by the day.
The longer I'm alive, the more opportunity people have to do me wrong.
The longer I'm alive, the more time I have to realize how wrong I've been done.
This equation expands exponentially with the amount of people you care about.
The more friends and family you have and the longer they live, the more they will undoubtedly be snowed over.
Assuming you are a truly compassionate person, your loved ones' betrayals will inevitably become deposits in YOUR outrage bank account.

There is a sick joke in all of that.
The doers of wrong often carry a callused conscious.
They sleep just fine.
Not because they don't have a conscious, but because somewhere down the road, they decided to fight through guilt to get what they want.
Just like fingers on guitar strings.
If they've been committed to fight through the pain, eventually they won't feel it anymore.

So what's the sick joke?
The scoreboard.
Them 2 - You 0
If life were fair they would get what they want, but guilt would consume them.
You would lose what they took, but you would sleep at night.
In the real world, the victim loses AND emotion consumes them.
Actually, I lose three times.
1. I'm done wrong.
2. Anger consumes.
3. I spend unprecedented amounts of time contemplating the unfairness of everything I just talked about.

But wait, what's that, Jesus?
"VENGEANCE IS MINE"
Wow. How about in context?

"If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."
KJV- Romans 12:18-21

"Vengeance is mine" is not a war cry. God is not challenging his enemies.
He is rebuking ME.
He is scolding me for wasting my mental energy on nonsense that I don't control.
He is scolding me for wasting mental energy on the bad parts of people.
He is reminding me that I have been given no right to JUDGE.
He is reminding me of how much I have been forgiven.
You have to give it to get it.
How many times in a day?
70 x 7

I feel at peace now.
Hallelujah.