As We Forgive Others

In: Personal Reflections on the Study of God's Word
Published:

In the 1998 movie "The Christmas Wish" Will Martin (Neil Patrick Harris) sets out to provide an answer to his grandmother Ruth's (Debbie Reynolds) Christmas wish to know who Lillian is - someone who shows up in her late husbands journals after their only son and his wife (Will's parents) were killed in a car accident. If you have never seen this movie, and don't want the ending spoiled stop reading, go find the movie and watch it before you finish this post!...

... in the end Will does find Lillian and it is implied that she was the driver that caused the accident that killed Will's parents. One of the closing scenes shows Ruth at Lillian's bedside, holding her hands telling her, "I forgive you too." Alan Patton once eloquently said, "When a deep injury is done us, we never recover until we forgive."
 
Our phrase this week is "as we forgive those who have sinned against us" (#AsWeForgiveOthers). Just as God is calling us to confess our transgressions so we can be forgiven, He is also calling us to forgive those who have harmed us. While being forgiven is important, forgiving others is essential to free us from the prison of anger and pain that results from someone injuring us.
 
Most of us do not have a problem where in Matthew 5:23 & 24 Jesus tells us that if our brother (or sister) has something against us (indicating that WE did something wrong) the obligation rests on us to go and make it right. We expect that when we have done something wrong it is our responsibility to make it right (going back to our "Own It" concept from last week.) We have much more trouble with Matthew 18 where He tells us that if we have something against our brother (or sister) the responsibility rests on US to go to them and make it right. Here THEY have done something to harm US - shouldn't it be their responsibility to make it right? According to Matthew 5 it is, but here Jesus is telling us "Don't wait for them, you be the agent of healing!"
 
Human nature loves to wait, choosing to be a martyr saying "if they would come to me and apologize I would forgive them" allowing the injury to fester rather than heal. This phrase, along with Matthew 18, reminds us that when we forgive those who have injured us, it frees us to heal.

 

Friday Blog

This past week has been an interesting and thought provoking week for me. Last Friday I received a phone call from Stephanie Sheehan, Dean of the School of Business at Southern Adventist University, continuing a conversation that began about three months ago. We had been dialoging about an open faculty position in the School of Business at Southern that had taken several intriguing twists and turns over the course of the months long conversation. The simple summary of the phone call on Friday was "with everything that has transpired, are you still interested in teaching at Southern." On Wednesday of this week I received an official invitation from the Academic VP's office to join the School of Business faculty. Throughout the past three months both Lisa and I have felt like every time the door seems to be closing on this opportunity God has pushed the door open again (the post from March 13 is a response to incidents that happened as part of the ongoing dialogue!) Due to the vast array of evidence that seems to point to God's direction in this matter on Wednesday evening I accepted the position.

Friday Blog

When I was younger my brothers and I would often camp beside the pond at the top of Tumbledown Mountain in Weld, Maine (unfortunately camping is now prohibited on the mountain.) Most of the time we would be the only campers on the mountain providing a peaceful solitude away from the busyness of life. We would start at the drive-in base camp located on a long dirt road off the main highway leading into Weld and hike the nearly 3 miles along the Parker Ridge trail to the top. From this bare summit we could look down on Tumbledown pond or we could look to the south and east toward Webb lake and Mt. Blue. One of the defining features of this hike was the climb through the woods to a steep ascent that lead over three succeeding rock ledges before finally ascending Parker Ridge. As you came out of the woods all you could see was the crest of the first ledge. For a first time hiker it appears you are about to reach the summit, only to be disappointed when you finally get there and discover there is another ridge. That experience was repeated two more times as you crested ledges two and three before finally reaching the (almost) summit (if you continue on the loop trail that goes around the lake you will ascend to a higher summit before descending back down through the "chimney" and "fat man's misery" - it is far better to come UP that trail rather than try to go down!) 

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