Forgiveness

Humans love a mantra of forgiveness.  We just forget that forgiveness is complex.
Forgiveness doesn’t fix an offense. Forgiveness doesn’t get us out of trouble.  But oh! Do we push forgiveness doctrine!  All those little mistakes are so gratefully covered by forgiveness! Thank you, Jesus!!!

Yet how much more grateful are those who have much needing forgiveness?

You see, it happens all the time. Someone screws up. Someone famous has a scandal, a slip of the tongue, an affair, a crime, and, Christian or not, we lynch them.  Now, I’m not saying consequences don’t and shouldn’t apply. But let us not forget that God’s forgiveness is so much bigger, better, and just plain more than we can comprehend.
Something nasty inside us loves it when an idol falls. We get to feel better about ourselves. That puffed up feeling of superiority from watching the Kardashians’, or the Bachelorette, or Duggars’. We may not have their fame or cash, but boy! are we smarter, more moral, and we haven’t screwed up like them at least.

Holy Cow, what hypocrites we can be!  We’re just like King David who said, the man who stole the neighbor’s lamb deserves death! Honestly, we wouldn’t offer forgiveness to ourselves if we could see our actions as an outsider.
Thank heavens, God is so good!
God forgives each adulterer, murderer, or psycho that truly repents. God forgives every contrite heart that repents. God forgives the most heinous of exposed sexual sins and hate crimes as freely as he forgives the secret heart sins never seen. 

God accepts each prison inmate that encounters him with the exact same adoption with which he greets Billy Graham. Religious people imagine ranks or levels and yes, there are different rewards in heaven, but there’s no difference in our need for or the availability of forgiveness.  Don’t think you are special just because you know Jesus. King David knew God intimately and God forgave him for impregnating a married woman, and then killing her husband to cover it up. God forgave Paul for being a terrorist. He forgave Moses for being a murderer. He forgave Gideon for being a little weenie, and he forgave Rehab for a past of prostitution. God is so good! We can’t understand God’s justice system and our minds can’t really grapple with His mercy and forgiveness system. 

Dear victims, my heart goes out to you. If you’ve been the one harmed by others sin, I am sorry and you have all my compassion and heartache for your situation. I can’t imagine your pain and hurt. But forgiveness is the key to healing your wounds too. You can live in a victim mentality, or you can run to God’s arms to forgive and be healed in a way only our Heavenly Father can. It’s unfair and ugly what one person’s sin can do to another. Yet forgiveness is the only cure for that pain. 

And yet no one wants to hear that. Tamar, forgive your brothers and family, get over your pain. Eve, forgive Cain for murdering your other son. Families tormented by Saul of Tarsus, forgive and follow Paul’s ministry.

We don’t want to forgive those that hurt us. We don’t want to forgive those that break the laws of morality. But when true repentance happens, we must embrace them as Jesus would, with wisdom and boundaries.
I am preaching to myself here. I struggle to give forgiveness, like everyone. I think many Christians struggle with forgiving the little things as much as the big things. And the enemy uses that to cause strife in God’s family everywhere. I don’t want to forgive that Christian who bit my head off. That one person’s nosy intrusion into my personal life, Christians should know better. I won’t forgive that person who acted wrong. I’m going to be a victim.
We see logic and reason behind the hurt of those who suffer deep wounds in our world and preach forgiveness, but we ourselves won’t bestow it to others for little offenses or to people we consider to have sinned too much for forgiveness.
While reading this, names will appear. Names you didn’t expect. Names you didn’t realize you were keeping track of and names you have ignored dealing with. We can’t perpetuate and express the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, truly living free, if we hold to the world’s version of forgiveness. 

We start with our issues. Then God changes our perspective.  God has and can forgive the most heinous of crimes in men and women. He called Moses and made him a great leader. He called David and made him King, a man after his own heart! He called Paul and built a huge ministry through him.

Nothing anyone has ever done or said is worth unforgiveness in your life. And if we can’t forgive, Jesus won’t forgive us (Matthew 6:14-15). It’s a serious heart issue for everyone.   

Who do I need to forgive, Lord?

As we watch and engage the world, let us never forget that God’s forgiveness is so much bigger and more than we can comprehend, but let us try to express it properly as Jesus did.