Spiritual direction: The problem with revenge

This article is about the Russian who killed the air traffic controller who was the only person on duty when a midair collision took place, killing mostly children on one plane, including this man's wife and children. He served 3 years in prison and is now something of a hero in Russia:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-revenge2feb02,0,1492755.story

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Here's the problem with revenge. No human knows all of the outcomes of a particular action. Only God knows that. Here is an example. Suppose the air traffic controller was not killed. His wife and children would continue to live with him wherever he was assigned. His children would grow up with different interests and career paths than they do now (they have moved back to their native country of Norway since the murder of their dad).

What if one of the children decided to go into medicine, because seeing what happened in this tragedy, his or her heart was moved with compassion? What if that child grew up to find the cure to cancer or to HIV/AIDS? By taking revenge on the father this guy who killed for revenge has erased a set of options for many people involved.

Humans are very limited in their intelligence and wisdom, and "clan" and "tribal" thinking does not enhance their wisdom. Humans think the world revolves around them. So this man, who suffered such a tragic loss of his wife and children, thinks that if he kills the controller in revenge that the rest of the world is untouched, and only the controller is dead. He thinks the widow is "OK" because "she has her children." Well, idiot, that is not the entire summary of the situation. You have changed destiny for at least these children.

Here is another example. Suppose one person who thought of being an air traffic controller read about this murder back in 2002 and changed his or her mind about that as a career, thinking "too high pressure" and "who needs that." This man or woman might have been "the one" to be on duty in the future and save a future wreck and tragedy from occurring.

That's the problem with revenge. With revenge you attempt to usurp God's justice and you don't even have one brain cell of understanding of what God does, who can bring good things out of even the worse tragedy. What a shameful mindset vengeful people have and what future ruin they cause.