Do not say, "I'll pay you back for this wrong!"  Wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you (Proverbs 20:22).

I confess that I have an over-developed sense of justice.  If I see someone wronged (or if I myself am wronged), I want to issue an immediate condemnation, figure out some way to publicly prosecute the offender so that everyone knows just how wrong he was, and then mete out some kind of punishment that will prevent such a situation from ever happening again.  Not typically through violent means, mind you, but definitely through vengeful means.  These situations of justice and retribution range from someone cutting in line at the grocery store to someone speaking abusively toward another person.  But whenever some kind of injustice takes place, I feel compelled to act.  Isn't that the manly thing to do?  Isn't that the human thing to do?

But Proverbs 20:22 tells me that I'm not supposed to be the long arm of the law.  Payback for wrong is not my responsibility.  Instead, I'm supposed to wait for the LORD's deliverance.

And while that's good and appropriate, on a certain level, I'm still trying to come to terms with this directive.  Yes, I like it that God is equally concerned with justice and retribution (and perhaps even more so than I am!).  I appreciate the fact that He's a lot less biased when it comes to human disputes -- and His righteous vengeance is ultimately going to be a lot more powerful and a lot more productive in the end.  And even on an emotional level, it can be incredibly satisfying to think, in view of wrongdoing, "'Vengeance is mine,' saith the Lord" (an old quote from the King James Version of Romans 12:19, which has stuck in my mind since childhood and which, to me, has certain connotations of an old Western).

But on the practical level, how is this really supposed to work?  I mean, what am I actually supposed to do if I'm walking down the street and happen to witness an old lady getting violently mugged by a gang of teenage purse-snatchers?  These types of situation would naturally make me want to live out childhood fantasies of heroism along the lines of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- single-handedly defeating a score of young punks in hand-to-hand martial arts combat.  But am I supposed to just keep going on my way, entrusting the situation to God, a la Proverbs 20:22?  Or wouldn't that be creating an even greater wrong, by purposely not doing anything about the first wrong -- and thus subjecting myself to God's payback someday?  I have a hard time knowing exactly how this kind of stuff is supposed to work itself out.  Of course, there are various non-violent, non-payback-motivated ways of intervening in such a situation -- calling the police, verbally confronting the wrongdoers, offering oneself up as a sacrifice in place of the victim -- and maybe I need to think longer and harder about ways to take advantage of these options.  But I still wonder:  What exactly should it look like to "wait for the LORD?"  Does God's deliverance happen on this side of heaven or in the afterlife?  How can we best represent Jesus, living as His body (the Church) in the world today?  These are my questions.  And I'm waiting for answers.