Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:32
Unforgiveness will turn you into someone you never intended to be, displaying the attitudes and qualities you detest in others. – Nancy DeMoss
There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness. – Josh Billings
A happy marriage is the union of two forgivers. – Ruth Bell Graham
At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, “Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?” Jesus replied, “Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven.” Matthew 18:21-22, MSG
I’ve heard some amazing Lenten sacrifices in this year’s offerings, from much-needed radiation treatment for an advancing cancer to finally laying down grief in the loss of a dearly loved parent.
Here’s one I have not heard, although I have no doubt it’s being offered:
How about forgiving?
There are some really great wins and guarantees to our forgiving an offense:
(1) it lessens its intensity
(2) it reduces its frequency of reminding you of the offense
(3) it expands my capacity to (finally!) be a loving, inoffensible person
If we truly see the wealth of what can be gained by simply forgiving, we might not only adopt it as a Lenten possibility, but a lifetime reality.
To fail to extend forgiveness–even to someone who does not request it–puts the offended person in a bunkered-down state. Moving forward is out of the question. There is no future for an unforgiving person, only the baleful reliving of the past. Over and over again. It is deadly toxic and crippling.
Of all the things that choke and poison spiritual growth, resentments are probably the most devastatingly effective. E. Stanley Jones
Stop living as though someone else is to blame for your life. Get revenge on whoever offended you by letting them out of your debtor’s jail. The joke will be on them. While they think they are getting a reprieve, it will be you who will finally breathe the fresh air and run through fields of wildflowers beneath cobalt skies. Go on, forgive them. Release it. Let it go.
My bragging rights persist, so please indulge me with this repost. It still rings true today. I love you, Dad. You’ll never know what the words “I’m proud of you” do to this heart of mine. I’m very proud to be your son.
My Dad can beat up your Dad.
Today is Father’s Day and I am reflecting on my one true example of fatherhood and, I can tell you, he’s got your Dad beat by a mile. Okay, so he only took me to White Sox games in the 60’s when they were awful instead of Cubs games as I was growing up on the south side of Chicago. And I never remember them winning. Not once. But I complained long enough that he took me to the north side one time to visit Wrigley Field when Fergie Jenkins was pitching.
And yes, the Cubbies won. 4-2. See? It made an impact on me. Dad did that.
Sure, it’s true that he worked for the phone company and they kept transferring him in the middle of the school year, making it hard to make new friends and easier as time went by to say bye to old friends. So what if I learned over time not to get too close to people. I did, in fact, learn to make friends quickly and my penchant for cave-dwelling has turned me on to spending long hours shut away with God (a ‘plus’ in ministry) and learning though other friends may come and go, He will never leave me nor forsake me.
Yeah, my stinking memory still holds onto the ONE time he looked so disappointed in me after a little league game where I had muffed a pop fly and caused us to lose a big game, amid all the other times he praised me in all things big and small and taught me the art of encouragement. Sorry, Dad. I did get over that a long time ago, and the fact of the matter is, I was kind of a goof at baseball. Thanks for all those years of leaving work early to pick me up from basketball practice and for rarely missing any of my games. You rock.
I say again, my Dad can beat up your Dad.
He’s a study in meekness and gentleness. He’s one of the kindest men you will ever meet. Many have been the times I’ve heard it said of my Dad that “he’s so cute.” Yeah, he kinda is. He’s just a short man but he stands head and shoulders above most. He’s also the youngest looking 81 year old you’ll ever know. And he doesn’t drive like an old man, which is always nice. ‘Tis true he has more hair than I do and in MUCH better shape but the one thing about my Dad that I can honestly say I have never known him to do is make fun of anyone. You won’t hear put-downs from his mouth. He builds up. He doesn’t tear down. And I have never, ever felt degraded by him.
Thanks, Dad. You rock.
And another thing. This man I am talking about? This man who is my Dad? Well sir, I’ve never seen a man love a woman like he loved my Mom. Throughout their almost fifty years together, right up to her passing from a three-month battle with cancer, he put her first every time. Not before God, mind you, but her needs always came before his own. The man’s a saint, I tell you.
There’s a whole litany of things I could say to honor my Dad but all of them would fall way short of the one thing that has stood out in my memory above all others. Growing up in my house, you always knew where Dad would be before the sun rose on his day: at the breakfast table with an open Bible and bowed head. His life has always been a worship to His Lord. And because of his devotion, his life has the mark of integrity on it. Before there was PromiseKeepers, he was the mold for what a promise-keeper should look like. I never knew him to leer at another woman or cheat God with the tithe or shirk his work responsibilities. They don’t make ’em like Dad anymore.
My Dad can beat the tar out of yours.
Dad was a great provider, a committed husband, a kind father and he showed me it’s never out of place for a grown man to cry, indeed it is quite masculine—all these things, yes, but there will never be a more bold statement over his life than that sweet head bowed in a fixed amen to the Holy Book that shapes every moment of his life.
All which has me asking: How?
He didn’t grow up in a Christian home. He never received much in the way of love from his Dad or stepmom, and yet he filled my sisters’ and my life with it in abundance. Man, it just leaves me shaking my head. Here’s to you, Dad, with love. Thank you for being Jesus to me with skin on.
Sylvester Stallone still has one more Rocky to write: YOU are the Rocky Balboa of Dads.
Decisiveness is the fulcrum of true discipleship.Luke says that Jesus “resolutely set his face to go to Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51)He’s about four months away from Calvary and the language that Luke employs emphatically illustrates our Lord’s decisiveness in seeing His mission through to the end.It’s more about His state of mind and not a geographical change.It has nothing to do with His checking MapQuest or getting a TripTik from Triple A.He knew who He was, what He was called for, and nothing was going to get in His way.
A few verses down, He encounters three would-be disciples.He says to each of them, “Decide!”Me?Or the world?Me?Or your will?Me?Or your level of comfortability?In each case they chose what was behind Door Number Two and left satisfied with that.
He says that a true disciple is one who has set his hand to the plow, or, in Elisha’s case burned the plow (see 1 Kings 19:21).Jesus set His face (“like flint”, Isaiah 50:7) to Jerusalem and we are to set our hand to the plow.Plowing is about harvest, and in the succeeding verses, Jesus sent out the seventy with this pep talk: “Pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send more plowers into the field.”Some plant, some plow, some water…but the Lord gets His beautiful harvest!
Our Lord cannot use scribes (the first guy) who are worried about looking foolish to their rich buddies when they are found sleeping in caves or under bridges “for a carpenter” instead of their large-mortgage house.He cannot use the ‘I’ll catch up with you down the road but right now I have a lot of personal stuff to iron out’ candidates (the second guy).The call is NOW. And there’s the plow!And He will pass over those who waver between two worlds and the Lord knows this world will usually win out (the third guy).
The call is NOW.And there’s the plow.
Who are the harvesters?Who are the ones “pressing into the Kingdom” (Luke 16:16)?They are people who will empty their entire life savings at His feet even though the religious tell them every reason why they shouldn’t.They are people who will walk away from a lucrative career because their life and livelihood is in His hands.People who will drop the nets at their feet, leaving every security behind because they see the Greater Incentive, a Treasure you cannot refuse.
We need to be more decisive than ever in these changing times.Before I finished that last sentence I was interrupted by a call from someone I know who just won over $20,000 in the lottery tonight.Isn’t that ironic?The world will do stuff like that for us—anything to keep us from treasuring Christ.Anything to keep us from pressing in, pressing on or setting our hand to the plow. Tragically, the third certainty of life—after death and taxes—is that twenty grand’ll be gone in a few days, weeks or months.
Then what?
Decisively pressing in means fighting against that twinge that says, “man, I wish that had happened to me.”It means being unimpressed by what the world offers because you know nothing can compare to the richness of knowing about a Greater-than-all Treasure and going after it.
There’s the plow.It may look worn, earthy, scarred and rusty, but it’s Who you set your affection on at the far end of the field that really matters.
