Grace to Move Forward

"How shalt thee hope for mercy, rendering none?"

                                                                                 ~ Shakespeare, 'Merchant of Venice'

A few months ago, I was thrown under the bus - to put it mildly.
By a handful of people.
It stunk.
And it hurt.

I have not spoken negatively about the incident in a manner to attack people or even a Church Body; not publicly and not intentionally privately - although the same cannot be said for the bus throwers.

The details don't really matter; for, when injustice happens and a betrayal is felt, all that really matters isn't what happens but rather how we shall respond.

In life, I have learned, especially since having cancer, things may happen to us that are uncontrollable, but we are mostly judged by our reaction to those negative things or sinful actions of others toward us.

As Thanksgiving has come and gone, I noticed two major changes in my attitude and outlook this year.
Number One - I was not rushing to get somewhere or to get back; I have no church for which I am responsible so there was nothing pushing me.
Number Two - Because of number one, I actually relaxed and enjoyed myself for the first time in many, many years.

[Which now begs the question, 'Since I had such a good weekend, shouldn't I actually be thanking the bus throwers for doing me a favor and ensuring the awesome job I now have once I go back to work on Monday?  
Not sure...but I digress.]

In retrospect, I realized early on in this new journey that forgiveness would be hard; it would also prove if I could really live out what I had been preaching for years.
All the truths from God I had spoken of faith, mercy, trust and grace - all of them were coming to a head in my life. Either the world was going to see that I believed them and truly trusted the Lord or my faith would be seen as being built on sinking sand.
I have seen both of these in my life in others; the second is devastating to watch because it

Universal Symbol of Friendship

destroys a once strong witness.

On this journey, I lost several people whom I considered friends; but I also gained a new respect for those who are truly my friends, inside the ministry and on the pew.
Truthfully, I miss those whom were once my friends; that is not to take away from those who are standing with me, but it is to remark of mourning period in lost relationships.

On this journey, I also found that I absolutely had to forgive and move on; I had seen too many in church life hang on to hate and bitterness for years, so much so that it destroyed inward believer and left behind only an outward image of a once pious follower of the Lord.

Grace, I have found, is unfair; that is why it is hard to forgive.
But Grace is not about fairness, grace is about mercy; this is true in families, in churches and among the nations.

In the Middle East today, some of the residents do not even know why they are fighting.
But the same could be said of the Hatfields and McCoys to some extent. 

Devil Anse Hatfield

Randall McCoy

And though you and I have heard literally hundreds of sermons on forgiveness and grace, we do not forgive as easily as we say we can.
Nor are we easily forgiven - but that too, is to be expected.





When reading Scripture, the Psalms are full of cries for vindication.
Psalms 144:1
 1 Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:


Or take this stellar verse....
Psalms 137:8-9

8 O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one,
How blessed will be the one who repays you
With the recompense with which you have repaid us. 9 How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones
Against the rock.

I'm not exactly certain, but I don't think I have ever heard a Sunday School lesson on either of those passages; although I have seen the spirit of both come to the front during a church business meeting.

And while these passages reveal certain things within the Divine Scripture, in the center of the Lord's Prayer - there is simply forgiveness.
For the first time in salvific history, our forgiveness from God is linked with our giving forgiveness to others.
If you read the Scripture rightly, you will see that forgiveness actually takes precedence over other religious duties, such as tithing.

When Jesus instructed that we, as His children, forgive our enemies, it was a bold statement the religious Jew had never even considered.
It teaches us that Christians will have enemies, but also that the grace which is given to us is to extend beyond the Cross, into our hearts, through us and to other people in our lives which are just as undeserving of grace as we once were.

But let me say this, rarely is forgiveness completely satisfying.
There remains an element within us which seeks revenge, which seeks to right the wrong done to us; so, when we readily forgive, it seems that there is something left undone in our lives.
Yet, when Jesus went to the Cross, His disciples felt that there was something missing, something undone; and there was - it was the Cross itself, it was God's forgiveness.
On Calvary, forgiveness was accomplished and today, we stand as their heirs of grace for the world.
Grace and Forgiveness may be unsatisfying in this world; but there is more to life than this world.

One must then ask, 'Well, why then are we to forgive?'
The answer is as amazing as it is simple; we are to forgive because that is what God is like.

In all reality, forgiveness is about doing for others what they can't do for themselves.
For, at the center of all of Christ's parables stands God, who takes the initiative toward us to forgive us and restore us to His fellowship.
As Paul so rightly taught, the Law of Sin and Retribution has ended and gone the way of the Canaanites; we live in a time ruled by the Laws of Forgiveness and Grace.

It is the Christian who should make the first move in forgiveness; especially when we are the ones who are wronged.
But do you know why?

By forgiving, you and I release our right to get even; we leave all issues of fairness and justice and vengeance for God to work out.
If nations did this, there would be no war; if we do this in our lives, there will be no wars in our relationships because God will settle them all.

And God balances fairness and justice very well; for that is what He did through Christ on the Cross.
It is through that one act of obedience where He destroyed all acts of disobedience, not by judging the offender, but by judging His Son and forgiving the offender in grace.
And that is exactly the Lord's Work we are to emulate in our lives.

Until next time, win one for the good guys.