overcoming

Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. ”

― Carrie Fisher

“I must fight with my weapons. Not his. Not selfishness and brutality and shame and resentment.”

― John Fowles, The Collector

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If there is a poison flowing through the arteries of America

It is resentment

We have a culture of indignation

People absolutely convinced

That life is unfair

Totally sure that they have been “done wrong”

Done wrong

By “them”

And there are lots of people to tell us who the villains are….

Those brown people who take “our” jobs (the one’s we don’t want and won’t do)

Those black people who are violent and threatening (so we need to pack a gun)

Those poor people who just might get something they don’t deserve

Those liberal persons who are going to take away my gun

Those environmentalists

Those Muslims

Those……

[fill in the blank here]

And what do we do with our resentment?

How do we respond when we roll in the fetid waste of essential selfishness

And become convinced that it is the “end of the world as we know it?”

We respond by getting defensive and protective

Worse, we respond by using shame and brutality

All that anger and hate

All those jeers wafting up from a Trump rally

All those cries of “lock her up”, or “send them back”

All those cries of “shoot them”

Or

By calling them criminals (for seeking asylum)

Or lazy moochers

Or worse

Resentment robs us

Of compassion

Of generosity

Of kindnessness

It causes us to become aggressive, even brutal

To coerce

To exclude

To bully

It pushes us into that place where we use

Whatever power we have, or think we have

Against others

It makes us ugly

There are plenty of things wrong with this world

There are plenty of predators our there

There are plenty of people who are abusing the positions they hold

There are plenty of people who

Fearful, and small, and resentful

Greedy and living with hungry egos

Do terrible things

And it is appropriate to resist

But we must respond in the right way

We cannot become what we resist

We can all to easily slide into resentment, and fear

Into that place of wounded affront

Where our only response is to lash out

Hoping to wound, to destroy

Jesus gave us a much different toolbox

love,

joy,

peace,

patience

kindness,

goodness,

faithfulness,

gentleness

and self-control

Jesus called us to a much different way of life

A life of gratitude,

And humility

And servanthood

We are called, as the children of God

To embrace not repel

To include not exclude

To share not horde

To lift up, not tear down

To be grateful, not resentful

It’s not any easy path

It is so much easier to make it all about “them”

Jesus is unambiguous

Love your neighbor

Feed your enemy

Give your enemy something to drink

Go the second mile

Give all you have

Never avenge

Do not rejoice in the troubles of others

Put your weapons [sword] away….

Or as Paul would later say

Don’t over come evil with evil

Over come evil with good