Failing to Fight the Demon of Resentment.
An Admired Community Man Turned Killer.
Jacob Nicholson was a much-respected man in his community. He had put in eighteen years of hard work at the maize factory. His off duty times was with the Boy Scouts troop, volunteer firefighter, or spending time with his children. Jacob, an active member of his church. He was an all-around model citizen loved by his community.
Everyone in the town admired Jacob — until the day he stuffed two pistols in his pockets, drove to the factory, walked through the plant methodically gunning down friends and co-workers of long-standing.
Jacob fired twenty deadly bullets and left a few casualties.
The community responded with shock, bewilderment, and grief.
Why would their trusted church leader, scoutmaster, loyal neighbor do such a thing?
It took some time to comprehend the complicated reason for Jacob Nicholson’s meltdown.
Detectives and the community began reassembling the pieces of his life that bolstered a town before tearing it to pieces.
Who or what was the demon causing Jacob’s tragic actions?
The community compared notes and put all the pieces together. They saw a picture that had been there all along; seems no one had seen it. There was a burden of discontent beneath all the hard work, neighborly smiles, and volunteerism.
They found the demon of resentment.
The key puzzle piece was Jacob’s job. In the eighteen years at the factory, he had always given his best-yet the men beneath him received promotions ahead of him. Nobody paid attention to Jacob’s feelings about that, but now many of the promoted men lay buried in the cemetery.
His co-workers, who opted out of his carpool, gave another puzzle piece because Jacob’s driving was reckless & dangerous.
It seemed clear; these issues had been eating away at him on his way to work, at home, and all the hours in between.
No one had suspected the demon of festering bitterness had taken hold of a man’s soul.
After all, Jacob Nicholson was just another face in the crowd- a face that would eventually appear in the news over the caption: “Responsible, Respectable, Resentful.”
Perhaps the best caricature of the power of resentment can be found in the novel Great Expectations penned by author Charles Dickens.
Here we meet the immortal character Miss Havisham, jilted at the alter many years before.
Long ago, she was dressing for her wedding, waiting for the hour of nine when her groom would arrive, and the joyful event would begin. The immense wedding cake and the delicious feast lay in wait.
At precisely ten minutes before nine, a message arrives that the groom would not be coming; he had run away with another woman.
With this shocking news, time ceased to move forward in the mansion of Miss Haversham. Every clock in the house registered ten minutes to nine from that day on.
Neither did old Miss Havisham’s wardrobe ever change: she still wore the wedding dress and veil, now faded, yellowed & tattered with age. The windows of the ruined mansion stayed heavily draped so that sunshine may never enter.
For decades the cake and the feast rotted, pieces carried off by rats & spiders. Miss Haversham could hear the rats behind the wall panels.
“Sharper teeth than those of the rats have been gnawing on me,” said Miss Haversham.
She was right. The teeth of resentment cut sharp and deep and lay waste to the life designed as a feast and celebration of abundant living. Resentful souls draw the drapes and purposely block out the sunshine.
Resentment is anger multiplied in time. It does not dissipate like anger but lurks beneath the surface, undetected.
Author Lewis B. Smedes, professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, wrote,
‘We make believe we are at peace while the furies rage within, beneath the surface. Hidden and suppressed, our hate opens the subterranean faucets of venom that will infect all our relationships in ways we cannot predict’.
Resentment makes us permanently angry; it carves deep lines on our faces. It adds a heaviness to our steps. We should not choose such a lifestyle.