Stalin’s greatest pleasure

At a boozy dinner in Siberia in 1915, a group of Bolshevik exiles quizzed one another about their sweetest delights. Stalin gave an answer that he would later repeat when in power:

My greatest pleasure is to choose one’s victim, prepare one’s plans minutely, slake an implacable vengeance, and then go to bed. There’s nothing sweeter in the world.

Simon Sebag Montefiore, Young Stalin, 309

Chilling honesty, and a ready revelation of the natural heart. You may not have the same opportunities to pursue such pleasures, but what are the inclinations of your heart? Would yours be any different, except for the grace of God?

But what a relief that the Ruler of God’s kingdom finds his delight in mercy.