Slashing Tires

Probably the thing that makes me the most angry, and the closest to some sort of retaliation against people, is when someone does something to hurt my wife. I really can't describe how delightful she is. When I hear that someone has said something to hurt her feelings, deliberately, it first makes me really hurt for her, and then I think about how clueless someone would have to be to lash out at someone as innocent as Valerie.
Just a few minutes ago I imagined, and actually considered, driving to someone's car and slashing their tires. I don't think I'm the kind of person people think of when they imagine a tire slasher, but nonetheless, I have given it thought.
Valerie is phenomenal at dealing with such situations. She usually has to walk away for a minute and recoup. But after a few minutes she will go back to the person and tell them, in a very calm voice, that she feels disrespected and that they should both talk about the conflict in a mature way.
Meanwhile I am on my way over to wherever Valerie is, getting ready to punch some senior citizen in the gut!
This morning after I stewed for a minute about someone verbally attacking my favorite person in the world, I started thinking about what me slashing their tires would do to the situation.
All it would do is make them even harder to deal with, more bitter, and really probably hurt their feelings. That is not to say that they didn't do something really wrong, but its things like the slashing of tires and mishandling anger that makes mean people mean. It usually leads me to a choice that makes very little sense to my emotions.
The only thing I can really do is forgive the person. In the book of James in the bible it says, 'For judgement is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgement.'
This idea is to me is very much like swimming up current. What an incredible irony God has decided to employ on earth. It is judgement (like me slashing some woman's tires) that gets everybody selfish and angry and bitter to begin with, and the only way around or out of the system is to choose to show someone mercy. In fact, it says in that verse that its the only way we will be shown mercy. In the midst of a conflict like the one that Valerie was faced with today, our first reaction, or at least mine, was utter judgement. God is not saying that I am wrong to be angry. What He is saying is that i have a choice to buck the system and stop the tide of bitterness. If I don't, I'm going to be the one that ends up getting his tires slashed!