This young man was fuming mad! He had been ranting about how everything was not fair.
"It's not fair!" he said so many times.
It seemed that he had been at the receiving end of a cruel act. He was hurt. He wanted revenge! He wanted to let the "enemy" experience the same humilating pain he had undergone; the same trauma; if not more than what he had undergone.
He wanted to get even. He came full of anger. He cried in anger. I could sense the hatred that was boiling in his heart. He wanted revenge.
But he had no means, not even the power, to carry out his vengeful anger!
"Father, I want revenge! I know it is wrong; it is a sin. And i refuse now to get even. So I just prayed to God, 'Lord, I leave everything to you. Aka-oley lay Dios!"
I asked him, "What do you mean 'Aka-oley lay Dios' (I leave everything to God)?"
"Since you yourself refuse to carry out your revenge, are you asking God to exact revenge on your behalf?"
God is not a vengeful God who would want to punish the sinner. Instead, He is a Merciful God who wants the sinner to repent. To go back to the fold of the Father.
If we pray, "Akaoley ka la, Katawan" (I leave everything to you, Lord), we are not asking God to punish and destroy our enemy (although that is what we really want). What God wants is that the "enemy" repents, and receive His mercy. So God would shower our "enemy" with His unfathomable mercy and overflowing grace!
Our God is a Merciful God who rejoices over one repentant sinner!
