Forgiveness

We are currently internetless. This is very hard to do. I think it would be easier to go without a phone. Hopefully in the next few days we'll have dial up of some kind... oh, we've moved in case you didn't know. You'll have to check my good wife's blog, at some point I'm sure she'll have pictures up and such.

Anyway, I had to preach this Sunday, the following is where I was coming from, I'll post the rest later. Too much of a good thing...or bad thing, you know.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the nature of forgiveness lately, I believe God allows us to deal with certain areas, think about and practice certain things for a season. Forgiveness has been it for the past couple of months.

One of the most celebrated movies of 1992 was called Unforgiven. I saw it for the first time about a month ago. In it the hero, played by Clint Eastwood faces the consequences of his past and is faced with his unpayable debt to society. He has killed and even though in the wild west, his past is excused, he is still marked a killer. He can not be forgiven and forgotten. Worse still for the character is that he can not forgive himself. He lives on with the guilt of who he has been and who he remains being.

Recently I heard that David Berkowitz, the notorious New York City Son of Sam murderer had given his life to Christ and one of his victim’s mothers had forgiven him. Stories like that are not extremely rare, but still refreshing and inspiring when you hear them.

I’ve also been inspired lately by the ease with which our boys utter the phrase, “I forgive you.” No hesitation, no grudges, no debating, or explaining how they’ve been hurt, just “I forgive you.” How does their father get to be like his sons?

A couple of weeks ago at the junior youth group we help lead in Kleinburg, we were watching a video clip from Rob Bell about forgiveness, and how you never know when you are having your last chance to make things right. One of my favourite song writers, Mark Heard put it this way, “Nobody gets the second chance, to be the friend they were meant to be.”

Personally, I’ve also been struggling with my own inability to forgive in a truly Christ-like manner. I find it so easy to expect forgiveness, its been easy to learn to say “I’m sorry,” or “I was wrong”. The struggle for me is not in those phrases, its in forgiving. In the phrase, “I forgive you.”