This morning my wife filled me in on yesterday--You're gonna love this!!!!
My daughter's abusive "5-year-old-in-a-man's-body" is now staying with his parents who created this monster with their crazy parenting techniques. He called my daughter to tell her to shut the air vents under the house and turn on a light you have to crawl to since a freeze was coming. Not that he is off right now and knows exactly what to do, but he has to keep his commands going!
Next he starts complaining about how he is being treated:
- Must be home at a certain time (early, even though he is 35)
- Must make his bed and wipe the shower door to leave it EXACTLY as momma dictates
- If he is 1 minute late to a meal the (usually chicken strips because momma hates to cook) plate will be in the microwave
- Answer all kinds of questions and listen to all kinds of stupid advice from meddling parents.
Payback---indeed it is HELL and this abuser deserves every bit of it!
He would get worse right now from an angry father who has just learned his daughter was grabbed by the hair and had a butcher knife placed to her throat in front of all the boys. He can thank God the separation is in progress and daddy does not have to intervene on that one.
My father, years ago, told me something very important: "When the Bible says, 'Vengeance is mine saith the Lord,' it means it!" I am eternally grateful to my father for pointing it out and telling stories of how it worked out for him. My Baptist preacher experiences have been exactly the same--I left the vengeance to God and it certainly was provided in ways I could never have planned nor predicted if I had taken vengeance into my own hands.
One quick example:
My second Senior Minister church had a group called "the clique" at its core. These people appeared to be faithful church members. They sang in the choir, taught SS, were elected Deacon and other positions. To the quick observer they seemed to be "righteous."
Once there and trying to work with them, I quickly discovered it was all a cover-up for backbiting, illicit affairs, making people with spiritual needs more sick instead of helping them to heal.
To make a long story short they corrupted 2 of my new staff members--literally physically with sexual antics corruption--to the point one had to be forced to resign and the other through his "other woman clique manipulator" ended up in a divorce / job loss / almost successful suicide place.
Guess who got fired as the Senior Minister----ME!!!!
I wanted to hurt several someones for how my wife and children got treated. Their actions were so threatening and hostile I took a friend and a .357 magnum with me after the vote to get things from my office. It may sound like a strange tale to you, but I had to live it.
You will never guess what happened to the "prime schemer" in this little story of having my career and family badly hurt. He had an elder son whose wife was expecting a baby. That young pregnant lady was the daughter of another participant in the "ousting of Gene event." In fact, he moderated the meeting when the church could have rejected my resignation, but the Moderator told them they could not do it because I had submitted it-----HOGWASH!!!
The beautiful child was born. Mommy and child were home alone in the first few days. She had put the baby to bed and decided to take a long warm soaking bath. Her husband came home within a few hours to find his beautiful wife and new mother drowned in her bath tub!
It sends chills down my spine!
Another participant in my pastoral slaughter had his beautiful beauty contestant type daughter in her early 20's fall off the back of a motorcycle into the path of an 18-wheeler which ran over her head! I'm not making any of this up. To a one those who meant evil for me paid a price as vengeance happened within the first year of my leaving!
Payback is HELL---usually it sets straight those awful things hurtful people have done to others who were just trying to do their job / get along / live and honest life.
If anyone chooses to take life in his own hands and exact vengeance, it turns into the kind of awful martyr bombing / plane hijacking / etc. stuff of recent years which has our soldiers by the thousands being exposed to vengeance bombing / roadside devices / etc.
Vengeance begets vengeance ad finitum!
When Jesus advocated returning good for evil / turn the other cheek reactions, he was offering a better way. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. proved that what seems impossible can become so by peaceful protest as hard as it might be to endure the blows, dogs, water hoses, etc. from those presently in charge.
As Christmas approaches, we did get a present from above which gives us encouragement to believe that when God says, "Vengeance is mine," he means it and you can trust it. It is proven to me that my father was right!
Thanks, Dad, I will surely see you again one day. You just got there before I do.
