Boy was I was seething. My anger burned red-hot toward the callous thief who’d scammed my vulnerable widowed friend out of a huge chunk of money, a significant portion of her retirement fund. How can anyone intentionally wound others like that? Yet they do. We hear about them every day. And then when unfathomable deceit of these people-predators touches our actual lives, the volcanic rage erupts.
So it was that my dusk prayer walk quickly morphed into a biblically proportioned cataclysmic rant as I called on the wrath of God to flash down in justice and vengeance on these wreckers of the lives of good people. As if I were Elijah in a showdown with the wicked Queen Jezebel and her prophets of Baal on the slopes of Mount Carmel (1 Kings, chapter 18 if you care to look up this reference). It didn’t end well for the predator-prophets.
Then, because I was on a prayer walk in the Cathedral of God’s Creation, my livid attention was drawn overhead by a pair of vicious, flesh-mauling carnivores who-who-whooo’ing from an oak limb high above my head. I found my burning anger turning toward the owls too, for I’ve long held a grudge about them ruthlessly capturing and consuming the sweet lil’ baby squirrels and birdies all around my house while I helplessly watch the merciless mercenaries at work.
Only they didn’t look like deadly raptors at the moment. They were … um, cuddling.
What??!?
I found it shocking that these deadly predators, on the same shame-on-you scale as scammer human predators, could actually be sharing a sweet, tender moment. That they had it in them to be loving and kind. It was a side of them I never considered. I had simplistically painted their pictures with all the same color – black – and never once thought that there might be a different, softer hue somewhere inside of them that was remotely redeemable. That maybe owls were only being owls by hunting what was in their nature to eat to stay alive. Perhaps rotten predator-people following their sinful natures are simply proving that they need a savior.
And that’s where we come in. We, the redeemed, Jesus-dependent, there-but-by-the-grace-of-God-go-I believers who know firsthand the path to salvation and are called to share the good news with the human raptors of our sin-filled world. Not condemn. Not hate. Not judge. (We’ll let Papa God do that.)
It’s not easy. It’s never easy to intentionally defuse anger and malice and resentfulness over injustice. To turn judgement over to the only true Judge. “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?” (James 4:12 NASB).
We can’t even declare, “Vengeance is mine, thus sayeth righteous Debbie!” (Romans 12:19)
Because none is righteous. No, not one. (Romans 3:10,) And judging isn’t my job. Loving is. Gulp.
As my anger slowly deflated beneath the specter of the unexpected predator lovebirds, I found my rage mellowing toward the human predators too. Papa God says He loves them just as much as He loves me (inconceivable!) so I think I’m gonna have to dig a little deeper into his supernatural love if I’m gonna live with clawed, razor-beaked predators. And I don’t mean just the kind with feathers.
So how do you live with predators in your life, my friend? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
Such a powerful reminder for each of us, Deb. We simply need to trust that the King of Justice will have His way (and hopefully woo the crooks into relationship with Himself so they can change their cruel and deceitful ways). This is definitely a post worth sharing.