Forgiveness

The whole business of forgiveness is a difficult, sticky subject sometimes. A friend recently sent me a story from our local news, which brought national attention & is airing on Youtube now. A 92-year-old Dyersburg, Tennessee woman named Pauline Jacoby lived out forgiveness. A man jumped into the passenger side of her car as she was leaving a local Walmart. He told her he had a gun demanded her money. Her reply was, “No, I’m not going to give you my money. You know, as soon as you kill me I’ll go to heaven & you’ll go to hell. Jesus is in this car. He goes with me everywhere I go.” She said then he started looking around but tears came to his eyes. She shared with him for ten minutes. He said, “You know, I think I’ll go home & pray tonight.” Jacoby said, “You don’t have to wait ‘til tonight. You can just pray anytime you want to.” Jacoby then showed extraordinary love as you voluntarily gave him all the money she had on her: ten dollars. She told him, “Don’t you spend it on whiskey either!” The man reached over & kissed her on the cheek & then walked away.

We often aren’t faced with such stark acts of violence, but little irritations from day to day. Even when we face difficult acts we are told how to act instead of simply RE-acting. First step to learn to forgive is to realize our own sin & wickedness & ask God’s forgiveness. Every one of us is guilty of sin, it’s just in degrees. Problem is ALL sin is evil. “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” I John 1:8-9NLT When we get a clue that God has forgiven us we learn a small scope of what we in turn must do to show His character. “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.” Romans 4:7-8 NLT

Matter of fact, once we give Him our lives He puts His character in us & helps us to live out forgiveness. Then it’s EXPECTED of us if we expect His continued forgiveness. "Since God chose you to be the holy people He loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony." Colossians 3:12-14 NLT When teaching about prayer in the model or “Lord’s Prayer” Jesus said, "and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us." Matt. 6:12 NLT So that’s the kicker: if we expect God to forgive us, we’ve got to forgive perpetrators.

"Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty!"
Psalm 32:1-2 NLT


I’m not going to sit here & tell you it’s an easy thing to simply ‘grin & bare it.” I’ve been hurt deeply many times in my life. Sometimes you run out of cheeks to turn! Forgiveness is not something that comes easy or even natural for that matter. It is something that makes life bearable for those who’ve been wronged. How many times have you been angry & vengeful at someone & they simply went about their lives blithely indifferent? Frankly, some folks couldn’t care less how they treat you, so your staying angry & bitter doesn’t phase them in the slightest. Seething & festering over wrongs done, both small & great, serve little purpose in bringing justice or right. It just hurts you.

We’re instructed in scripture to address the person who’s offended you. If that doesn’t help, while there are other avenues & this is not a complete treaty or thesis on the subject, it ultimately falls into the hands of God. He’s the One who will judge us at life’s end anyway. To tell you the truth, He does a far better job of retribution that any court of the land.

All over the world we are seeing a rise in violence & acts of anger & rage. A new term has been coined, “Road Rage” to explain anger behind the wheel. Children killing their parents & parents killing their children, who would have thought it would become so prevalent. Watching the news you see so many crimes that it’s become almost mundane & pedestrian to the ‘average Joe’ on the street.

I realize that some of you reading this have possibly gone through horrific acts of violence, perhaps from even someone you love. I don’t pen these words, glibly & trite. I’ve had to live out some of this on a regular basis but I have seen & heard of others that were a walking, breathing ‘life lesson.’ The late Corrie Ten Boom, who lived through the horrific acts of hatred & violence perpetrated by the Nazi’s Third Reich, showed one of the most powerful examples I’ve heard of short of Jesus. I’ve read her books & been brought to tears many times at her telling, but listen as she shares in her own words of forgiveness:

It was in a church in Munich that I saw him, a balding heavy-set man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken. It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives. ...

And that's when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones. It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister's frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were!

Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp where we were sent. ...
"You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk," he was saying. "I was a guard in there." No, he did not remember me.
"I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us."
"But since that time," he went on, "I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein, ..." his hand came out, ... "will you forgive me?"

And I stood there — I whose sins had every day to be forgiven — and could not. Betsie had died in that place — could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?

It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do. For I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. "If you do not forgive men their trespasses," Jesus says, "neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses." ...

And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion — I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. "Jesus, help me!" I prayed silently. "I can lift my hand, I can do that much. You supply the feeling."

And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
"I forgive you, brother!" I cried. "With all my heart!" For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then. Copyright © 1972 by Guideposts

I’ll pray for you to find forgiveness in Christ & then to exercise that forgiveness on others. Please return the favor that I’ll live out this love & forgiveness to all around me as well.

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