New Books

I, like many, have gone to Borders to raid the graveyard of unsold books at discount prices. I don't know whether to feel bad for scavenging the misfortune of our town's best bookstore, or feel good for helping their poor bottom line. Nonetheless, I bought 10 books and have finished one and started on the second. In my usual form, I will pick a few highlights here and there and share them.

Today's selection (and probably a couple more) come from the book Let the Journey Begin by Max Lucado. It is a devotional-style book. It's titled Revenge Is a Raging Fire.

Resentment is the cocaine of the emotions. It causes our blood to pump and our energy level to rise.

but, also like cocaine, it demands increasingly larger and more frequent dosages. There is a dangerous point at which anger ceases to be an emotion and becomes a driving force. A person bent on revenge moves unknowingly further and further away from being able to forgive, for to be without the anger is to be without a source of energy.

That explains why the bitter complain to anyone who will listen. They want-they need-to have their fire fanned...Resentment is like cocaine in another way too. Cocaine can kill the addict. And anger can kill the angry...

And it can be spiritually fatal too. It shrivels the soul.

Hatred is the rabid dog that turns on its owner. Revenge is the raging fire that consumes the arsonist. Bitterness is the trap that snares the hunter.

And mercy is the choice that can set them all free.