Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple. – Job 5:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 16, 2012): Job 5

We live in a dysfunctional world. Everyone of has suffered a circumstance that has negatively impacted their lives. We didn’t ask for the event to happen. Sometimes it wasn’t even our fault that the event happened (although, if we are honest with ourselves, often it was.) But that doesn’t change the fact that things have happened in our lives that have hurt us – all of us. It is the universal truth of this life. No one is exempt from dysfunction – no matter how good we might look on the outside.

Sometimes it is interesting (or maybe a better word might be distressing) to watch how we react. Too often our response is to hurt ourselves more. We react in anger, and we hold grudges. We compare ourselves to others and wonder why we can’t have what they have. We think that our anger somehow lifts us up and puts them down. We tell ourselves that our reaction is justified. And part of the problem is that it might be, but that fact still doesn’t help. We think we feel better because of our anger. But life doesn’t work that way. All we are really doing is letting the dysfunction win.

And we think that forgiveness is something that we do for others, but the truth is that forgiveness is one of the most selfish things we can do. It is the key to winning the battle against resentment and envy. In the act of forgiveness, we don’t let someone else off the hook. We let ourselves off the hook. We stop paying the debt that someone else owes.

Resentment and anger really are killing us. In our culture, we have a growing list of diseases that we can only blame ourselves for. Our pent up emotions are leaving us mentally, socially and physically crippled. For our own health and the health of our society we need to deal with our resentment, anger and jealousy issues. But as Christians, the effect is even worse. We are losing the ability to even try to act in Christian love to those that are not like us, something that is essential to our character in Christ.

The price we are paying for resentment is just too high. It is time to just say “I forgive” and start the recovery.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 6