“So Esau hated Jacob
because of the blessing his father had given to his brother. Esau said
privately, ‘The time of mourning for my father is near; then I will kill my
brother Jacob!’” Genesis 27:41
“Carrying a grudge” is
a fitting way to describe what happens when we are so offended that all we can
think of is leveling the score. We pick up the offense in the morning as we
rehearse the hurt along with our morning coffee. We carry on imaginary
conversations with the offender as we drive to work, probably repeating the
same arguments over and over again. We take the grudge into bed with us. After
the weariness of carrying such weight around all day, we do not even lay it
down to sleep. We allow its weight to press down upon our minds, keeping sleep
at bay while the grudge grunts through our thoughts like an angry bull.
