Is forgiveness still a thing?
I have noticed a disturbing cultural trend. It has been growing in intensity for at least ten years. Some individual, usually a public figure like a celebrity or a politician, (although this is increasingly happening to “normal” people), have some sin or indiscretion revealed about them. Something for which they are loudly and publicly condemned; but no matter how much they confess and repent, it is never enough. We always want them destroyed, or unemployed, or put in the village stocks; a medieval contraption built for public shaming.
Why is this happening? What has changed? Not us certainly; whatever else may change humanity does not, we just acquire different technology.
This is called the “information” age. The internet, social media, the smart phone, etc. have given us access to vast amounts of information, including information about each other, that we have never had before. Don’t misunderstand; I am not saying that this technology is causing our hearts to be hard, it has no such ability. I think that it is simply revealing what was already there; what has always been there. it seems the more we know about each other, the less likely we are to forgive. What must it be like for God? He knows everything there is to know about you. What if He didn’t forgive?
It seems we have created a culture where everyone is offended, and there is no forgiveness. What a dreadful place. There seems to be no statute of limitations on any social crime. People are crushed for a ten-year-old tweet or a twenty-year-old post. Are you the same person that you were twenty years ago? if you are, I pity you. Isn’t this world angry enough? I find rage exhausting, don’t you? I think forgiveness is our worlds’ greatest need.
We may not be able to change culture, but we can change ourselves. Are you withholding forgiveness from someone? Are you slow to forgive? Do you like to hold a grudge for as long as possible? Nelson Mandela said, “resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.’ The longer that I do not forgive, the uglier I become.
Is there someone in your life who stays away from you, because whenever they are in your presence, they know they are stepping into a steel cage of unforgiveness. How many relationships, how many marriages, have died the slow death of unforgiveness? Are you holding any hostages in your own prison of bitterness? Release your captives. Corrie Ten Boom said, “Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is a power that brakes the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.”
Forgiveness may not fix a given relationship; after all it takes two to reconcile, but it only takes one to forgive. Forgiveness will not change the past, but it may change the future. The word is far more generous than we think, “for-give” it literally means to give before. I know that some of us have suffered great pain. And have deep wounds, even catastrophic ones. I am sorry. I wish that I could eat that for you, and it would be gone, but I can’t. I have never been betrayed to that extent. But I know someone who has, and he died praying for the forgiveness of his betrayers.
The world is cold enough. Do not make it colder with a hardened heart. Lower your shields. Drop your weapons. Forgive. Let’s spend the rest of our days forgiving each other quickly, and easily; in traffic, at work, in the home. Until the day when the trumpet sounds, and we are all called in from the playground by the one true judge of the living and the dead. The one who said…
“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
You may not like my little sermon. You may dismiss me as stupid.
That’s okay.
I forgive you.