Just Let It Go…
When I was a younger man I had a hard time letting go of anger if I felt someone had done me wrong. In some cases justice wasn’t enough, I wanted revenge. One time shortly after I was married I had an idea for a fun day with my wife. On several occasions I shared stories with my wife about a great fishing spot I used to go to when I was a kid. The fishing spot was actually on private property about a mile away from where our ranch was. I discovered the secret fishing spot when I was about 12 years old on an exploratory hiking mission. I had my fishing pole with me just in case I found a good fishing hole along the way. As I made my way following the creek I heard what sounded like a waterfall. I followed the sound and soon enough I came upon a beautiful waterfall. I hiked around the waterfall looking for a place to fish from. I found the perfect spot about ten feet below the waterfall on a ledge. I excitedly cast my line close to the turbulence of the waterfall and I immediately got a hit. I hooked into something pretty big because the fish broke my line. It took me a few minutes to set up my hook. I cast out my line and the same thing happened. My heart was excitedly pounding as I reloaded and cast out for the third time. This time I caught a nice sized trout but nothing as big as the first couple of fish that had broken my line. I caught several more trout that day and took them home to mom.
I told my mother about my adventures and she seemed genuinely happy for me. In telling Mom about my incredible fishing expedition I’m pretty sure I left out the part about this all taking place on private property. Although my first adventure had been successful I kept a low profile when I returned to my secret fishing hole. After completing several strike missions much like a navy seal I got caught by the owner of the property one day. His opening line to me was, “How’s the stealing going?” I was super embarrassed and did my best to apologize. After a short discussion he said, “I’ll tell you what, if you do some work for me I’ll let you fish on my property.” I jumped at the opportunity and for several years until our family moved I had fishing rights to the best secret spot in Gilroy. Fast forward ten years and I’m back in navy seal form leading my wife to my secret childhood fishing spot. We climbed over barbed wire fences and moved carefully towards the waterfall. It was as beautiful as I remembered it. We positioned ourselves on the ledge the way I did when I was a kid and instantly got a hit and a broken line. As I was baiting up the line I looked up and saw two men peering down at us from above the waterfall. One of the men was a sheriff. My heart sank. It turns out the man standing next to the sheriff was the son of the man I had worked for as a kid for fishing rights. I explained this to the son and the sheriff but the son was belligerent towards me. He pressed trespassing charges against me and I had to go to court. Some weeks later I walked into a small courtroom in Gilroy and explained to the judge about the deal I had made with the man who owned the property years earlier. The judge was sympathetic to my story and dropped the charges. That should have been the end of the story but it wasn’t. I didn’t like the way the landowners’ son treated me.
I told someone close to me about what happened and they said, “you should call that guy up and tell him you have been vindicated. At first I didn’t think it was a good idea but I let anger get the best of me. I did some research and found the phone number of the belligerent man who pressed charges against me. I called him up and let him have it. In my anger I said things to him I should never have said. When I put the phone down I thought to myself, that’s what he gets for being such a jerk. I thought that was the end of the story but it wasn’t. Apparently this man knew the judge. He contacted the judge and told him about the phone call I made. A couple of weeks later I received a summons from this judge to come back to court. I was being charged for contempt of court. If I had just let it go everything would have been fine but in allowing my anger to get the best of me I was in a real mess. I had to go to court and face the owner and his son. The owner was now very angry with me as well as his son. I did my best to explain my side of the story but the judge wasn’t going for it. All these years later when I think about it I think the judge was right. He found me guilty but he was merciful to me and reduced the charges from contempt of court to trespassing. I paid a $50 fine and did the walk of shame past the owner and his son.
I learned a great lesson through that experience. In Romans 12:19 (NLT) it says, “Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God."
The next time you feel the need to get revenge, take my advice, “just let it go!”
Stay close to Jesus,
Steve