Cleaning the Mess (Friday Devotional)

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

- Romans 12:21

The other day, Andrew knocked over a cup of milk by accident. No big deal, of course. When you have a small child, messes happen. So my response was simple: I got a towel and soaked up the spilled milk until the mess was cleaned up.

What I didn’t do—what would have been completely ridiculous—was go get the milk carton out of the fridge and start pouring even more milk on the floor. Why would I? After all, that would just make things worse!

When the mess is spilled milk on the floor, we understand the need for cleansing instead of making things worse—but when the mess is a moral one, we often lose sight of that need. When we are wronged, our flesh compels us to retaliate in kind.  When we suffer, we want to see our enemy suffer too.

But Scripture reminds us that responding to evil with evil doesn’t make things better, it just makes the mess bigger. Christ calls us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, to respond to indignity with grace and darkness with light. When from the cross he asked his Father to forgive those cheering his crucifixion, the Lord gave us the ultimate example of how to respond to pain: with healing.

Life is messy, there’s no doubt about it. The challenge of discipleship is to find ways both big and small to bring cleansing when others would rather make things worse. The world is crying over messes far worse than spilled milk—how will you respond?