The way they treated us is for our learning not for our revenge

There is an incredibly valuable opportunity in being mistreated, misunderstood, mishandled, abused or assaulted, especially in God’s economy of things.

Even more useful than forgiving the wretch that torched a part of us is the purpose of hurt in the first place.  That purpose is learning for empathy.  Now that we know what it actually feels like and how it actually hurts, we have the opportunity of doing no such wrong against anyone.

That’s the purpose of suffering — 
to absorb all we can learn from God about it.

There is no better way of learning most lessons than through experience.  Some are gifted to learn by observation, and that too is a purpose in watching on as someone else is mistreated, misunderstood, mishandled, abused or assaulted.  We watch on and say, “No!  I’ll not be mentored by that abysmal example.”

The way they treated you may be contemptible, but it’s no excuse for us to live for revenge, besides this more supreme idea puts forth the power of making something of the hurt; to look to the heavens and simply ask, “Lord, what may I learn?”

Often God can be heard within our spirit saying, “I want you to learn to never do what hurt you to others — learn that and you’ve made good of the purpose I had in you experiencing this horrid thing.”

Ever since I began writing in October 2007, I have written to the theme that, “Life is the learning ground.”  That’s the practical purpose of life.  It is one way we can redeem the contemptible and glorify God in the process.

What we need to do to employ this method is patience and faith.  It is far easier to allow our passions to best us and to exact retribution.  How many times have we all fallen for that ruse?

There is a better way — 
we pay it forward into the lives of those we may not even know.

This is how we build the Kingdom from our low vantage point — we take what we’ve learned, the toughest lessons, and we agree with God that these disgusting behaviours will have no role and no power over our lives.

When we put this method into practice, we find by our experience that God always intended to bless it. What we sow forth in faith, God always gives credence to.  God honours us as we honour God.

We use every pain, trial, hardship, betrayal, disappointment, broken dream, injury, privation and adversity to say not, “God, why?” but to say,

“God, You have a purpose in this; something for me to learn... keep me patience and wondering in the meantime before You show me what that is... and please make it so that I never do what was done to me to another person, because You have shown me what that feels like.” AMEN. 

What we suffer ought to make us more compassionate.  What we suffer is purposed to soften our hearts.  But if we’re not careful the opposite can occur.

The wrongs done to us are always wrong.  Our opportunity is to right them by never engaging in the same behaviours.

Photo by Helena Cook on Unsplash