The Wheel goes Round, and Round, and Round, and Round, and... well, you get the point /// Abbie Hedden
Revenge, revenge, revenge. Clytemnestra killed her husband in revenge for her daughter. Her daughter was killed to further the war effort, which was - you guessed it - revenge when Paris of Troy stole Helen from Menelaus. But when Orestes kills Clytemnestra in revenge, Clytemnestra asks the Furies to seek revenge for her. At that point, I couldn't help but wonder... when does it end? The first domino dropped. It's up to someone to step aside so the rest don't keep falling. I think this is a lesson everyone needs to learn in life. Generational curses, such as addiction, require someone to break them. The train has to stop somewhere. I know personally I was tempted to continue the "domino effect" of bullying. I was bullied harshly in high school, and I would turn around and throw that energy on someone weaker than I was. I was convicted over that; nothing that I was doing would stop the pain that I felt, and only continued to spread it. It required me to step back and stop the spread. I think this is one of the reasons that God says "Vengeance is mine; I will repay" in Deuteronomy 32:35. Human vengeance never ends anything; only the True Judge can serve justice.
Commented on Caroline and Isabel
I like how you tied this in to a real-world application, and also, I appreciate your honesty. It's not always easy to admit to our faults or share the dark, unpleasant sides of our past, so I commend you for that.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right about vengeance. The reason why God tells us to leave it to Him is because we will make a huge mess with it. That is exactly what we see in these stories. Also, God does a much better job with vengeance than we every will.
ReplyDeleteI see a very similar thought process my mom used to tell me "hurt people hurt people." She used this as a way for us to seek repentance, redemption, and grace, because if we are hurt and go along hurting people then the people you hurt will hurt others. To stop the cycle we must be the one to stop the cycle. We need to shove the stick in the wheel.
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