When Your Grudge Overrides Your Sense

As the Civil War was beginning, Colonel James Ripley was the man responsible for arming the troops. He chose to outfit the Union troops with 50-year-old short-range smoothbore rifles that dated to the War of 1812. Now there were better rifles, the more modern long-range Enfield rifles, available, but he claimed they were too expensive. But cost was not the real reason; it was the fact that the Enfield company was based in England, which Ripley still hated fiercely.

The Confederacy didn’t hold onto that grudge. They were willing to buy the rifles from England.

At the first Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, the Confederates devastated the Union troops and suffered a third fewer casualties because their Enfield rifles could hit targets at 800 yards, compared to the Ripley’s guns, which had a range of only 500 yards.

The Union did end up winning the Civil War, but according to some historians, Ripley’s ill-fated gun order made it last two years longer than it should have and cost an estimated 350,000 lives.

When we let old hangups effects our decision, we might be doing more than just harming ourselves. In Ephesians 4:31-32 we are commanded, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”

Holding on to anger and bitterness isn’t a good investment. Letting our emotions cloud our decisions often leads to terrible decisions. Forgiven people should not be people who can’t forget.

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