There’s a fist-shaped hole in the door of my childhood bedroom. It was there when my mom and I moved in, and I’d soon learn it portended what my stepfather could do. Even writing this, more than two decades after moving away, I still feel fear.
My stepdad was a deacon in our local church and well respected in the community. He led more people to Jesus than I ever have or likely will. His explosive anger never reached outside the home, so perhaps it makes sense why our church leadership thought I was a rebellious teenager making trouble and gossiping about a “godly” man.
I left home before I graduated from high school, and then just before college, Christ called me to himself. I had a lot of anger built up from those years with my stepdad, and I definitely wasn’t ready to forgive. Over the next few years, Jesus taught me to love my enemies in a most unexpected way—through praying the imprecatory psalms.
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Russ Meek is a visiting professor of Old Testament at Tennent. He studied at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MA, biblical languages; PhD, Old Testament) and has taught at various colleges and seminaries since 2011. Russ writes widely for lay and academic audiences about all things Old Testament and its relationship to the Christian life; you can read his work at russmeek.com. He, his wife, and their three sons live in north Idaho, where you’ll find them gardening, cooking, and trying to tame the havoc that three boys wreak.