Putt-Putt Golf and God's Wrath

Isn't it funny how playing putt-putt golf on a beautiful day with your family can end up teaching you about the wrath of God? 

A few days ago Stephanie and I took our kids to play putt-putt golf. Around the 6^th or 7^th hole, while I was preparing to swing, Stephanie yelled out, “Oh my gosh! Look at that kid!” I turned and saw a 12 or 13-year-old boy walk about 8 feet away from my 7-year-old daughter, unzip and start peeing.

Normally, I’m a pretty mild-mannered guy. Not that day. Something snapped in me that day.

I ran over screaming at him to stop. He turned to look at me and started laughing. That didn’t help matters. I never touched him or cussed at him, but I verbally laid the smack down… hard. I loudly asked him where his parents were, and basically commanded him to follow me inside to see the manager so we could page his mom.

After the kid had spent about 10 minutes in the manager’s office with his mother and the manger, he came out in tears and gave me a sincere apology. Though she too was apologetic, his mother seemed to have a hard time fathoming how her son could have done such a thing. 

When I got back to Stephanie, she seemed shocked over what just transpired. Both of my kids said they had never seen me so angry. It was weird. It shocked me too how quickly I went from 0-60 when I felt like my daughter was threatened. 

Some people have a hard time believing that a loving God will pour out His wrath on humanity. I realize the subject of God’s wrath can be difficult to wrap our minds around, especially in light of the incomparable love we see in Jesus.

However, if you struggle believing in God’s wrath, just become a loving parent. If you’re a loving parent and you experience your child being threatened, that love you have for your child will cause you to act.

The apostle John shows us in his Gospel God’s incredible love in letting His Son die for us to be saved. However, John also shows how God won’t allow someone to disrespect His Son’s loving sacrifice and get away with it. 

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because He has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. – John 3:17-18

Early Christian apologist, Irenaeus, reveals how God takes a similar stance toward those of us who become God’s adopted children by grace through faith:

Vengeance came from God upon the Egyptians who were subjecting Israel to unjust punishment. … So the apostle says, in like manner … “Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to repay tribulation to them that trouble you … at the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven with His mighty angels, and in a flame of fire, to take vengeance upon those who know not God, and upon those that do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – Irenaeus 180CE, Volume 1 p. 838 [CD-ROM]

Take special note of those last two phrases. It may feel good at times to take vengeance into our own hands, but that approach is completely against the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It sometimes feels good to hate, to repay evil with evil, to hold grudges, etc. But let me encourage you to leave room for God to be the avenger of evil. As I saw the other day, the drive for vengeance can very quickly take us in a direction we often later regret. 

Trust that God loves you and let Him do His job; then you do yours. Especially when you want to snap, may you walk as Jesus walked and obey His Gospel.