But inevitably, when I can’t harm the people who harmed me, I just end up harming the people who love me. So maybe retaliation or holding on to anger about the harm done to me doesn’t actually combat evil. Maybe it feeds it. In the end, if we’re not careful, we can actually absorb the worst of our enemy and on some level even become them.
Nadia Bolz-Weber is an American theologian, New York Times bestselling author, and Lutheran minister. She served for ten years as the founding pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado.