| a tempest in a teapot |

So I'm not perfect. While I doubt this is a surprise to anyone, I figured that I should post that sign high above my blog. Many of the entries I write are reflective in some manner, but they can appear to be thoughtful consideration directed outward, with little personal application of my own. Perhaps as a person and as a blogger, I keep people at arms length, rarely allowing for the type of close relationship that enables people to tangibly interact with my brokenness and my flaws. /preface.

While at the gym last night, I was listening to a sermon from one David McGhee. A Freedomize Toronto preacher of olde, David was preaching from Romans 12:17-21. It was a message on revenge. While running and biking and "pumping iron", I listened as David eloquently and artfully spoke painful truth into my life. I can be a person who struggles to forgive; I can be a person who desires to see the wicked punished. Like the psalmist or like Jeremiah the prophet, I can be one who enjoys seeing the righteous prosper and the wicked suffer. I like justice. No, I love justice.

I can get so bent out of shape over the actions of others, all the while forgetting that my actions can be equally as hurtful or crude. And then I found this phrase in a theological textbook, "a tempest in a teapot". I've not used it in the same context as the book, for instead I saw it as a looming disaster contained in a very small and fragile package. As the vengeance inside of me slowly spins, eventually it becomes a surging and spinning tempest. And yet I am a broken cistern of Jeremiah 2; I am a fragile little teapot. The tempest inside of me - if left unmanaged - will eventually break free of me and wreak disaster on others. And yet this is what the vengeance inside of me wants; this is what the tempest desires.

God spoke to me last night about my own life. Through the voice of David, God called me to look inward at the surging winds that I have allowed to gather speed. He called me to consider my own desire for vengeance, and then to vanquish it with love. In Romans 12:17-21, Paul speaks about repaying evil for evil, and then contrasts it with the repaying of evil with love. That to truly lavish love on an enemy - to lay aside hurt and hate and truly encourage or exalt an enemy - that this action is like heaping burning coals on their head. This act of unhindered and untamed love will actually be more influential and more powerful than allowing the tempest to be set free.

I know that I stopped in my tracks and thought about a certain co-worker that I have. This week I'm going to try and show love to this person. Perhaps it will break the spiral of vengeance that exists between us. Perhaps it will calm the storm that lays siege to my cracked and fragile teapot.

Thanks for reading.

Oh, and check out David's "vintage" sermons at http://www.freechurch.ca/Content.xjp?novar=&id=662&CalendarSearchType=SPEAKERALL&CalendarSearchText=David+McGhee