When my daughter was very little, she learned about the idea of revenge. I think she got it at a church lesson, or maybe from a story book. She was very interested in words, and for whatever reason, the word 'revenge' really stuck with her.
Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, "I will take revenge; I will pay them back." says the Lord. Instead, "If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads." Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.
She was not only interested in words. She was endlessly (and still is) interested in torturing our dog, Lucky. Lucky is very patient, until she has had enough, at which point she will nip little fingers to encourage them to go find another toy.
One day, after being messed with a little too long, Lucky had reached her snapping point, and snap went her teeth. My daughter scolded, "Bad Wucky! That's wevenge!"
I tend to think of revenge in Count of Monte Cristo terms. For me, the word 'revenge' connotes a sense of patient (obsessive) plotting for the utter annihilation of my enemies. Mushroom clouds. Craters. Smoking boots.
This mental picture keeps me from thinking that my petty tit-for-tat responses fall under the Revenge category.
Like my response to the guy who sits on my rear bumper in traffic, "pushing" me past my speed comfort -- I tend to take perverse humor in the fact that I'm in front and he is not. I might even slow down a little, just to make him more mad. My internal (and sometimes not so internal) response is, "Dude, if you wanted to be first, you should have left earlier."
Then came the day that not only did the guy (middle aged, balding) flip me off when he could finally pass me, so did his lovely wife. While the guy was definitely wrong sitting on my tail like he was, I was not above reproach in my response. It was, honestly, revenge.
When I am offended, my first response is not "How can I love this person?"
Perhaps it should be.
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