Thinking beyond forgiveness

Forgiveness isn't easy for a lot of people. Read the following real life situations and think beyond forgiveness. It will help you forgive the big stuff and the little things.


"I can't believe they call screened me."

Forgive them. Maybe they have something big going on in their life right now. As a matter of fact, you may not be the most important person in their life at this second. Or they could be very busy. There's a possiblitiy you could be getting on their last nerve and they don't want to talk to you right now. On the other hand, maybe there's a relationship issue that needs to be resolved. You may need to ask them to forgive you.


"That jerk just flipped me off!"

You didn't do anything. You're just sitting there minding your own business. The person that used their middle finger to tell you you're Number One has bigger issues than not getting his/her way in traffic. Forgive them. It's clear they're leaning toward their Darth side. Ask God to bring something or someone into their life to make it better. You say, "Yeah, right". I say just try it. You'll be amazed what it will do for your attitude.


"I'll never be able to forgive them for what they did."

A fireman accidentally dropped their overcoat on the road after they finished a run. My Mom swerved to miss it, lost control of her car, and ran head-on into a conversion van. She died immediately. Did the fireman make a mistake? Yes. But would being angry at him for the rest of my life bring back my Mom? No. The circumstances were completely beyond my control. Forgiving the fireman was the only logical solution. I had to forgive the fireman for something he did that was totally out of my control. It wasn't just the right thing to do, it gave me peace in a difficult time.

We can't control how other people react to life. When their adverse reaction to life affects us, we have to forgive them. We can learn about how to forgive when we understand where forgiveness comes from. Forgiveness began with God. God, in his perfect wisdom and knowledge knew that humanity was going to make mistakes...plenty of them. God decided to forgive humanity and give humanity a chance to ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness is God's gift to us. He forgives us when we use our free will in ways that damage our relationship with him and with others. He could control us. Even though he's God and he has every right to control us, he chooses differently. God shows his love for us by not controlling us. He gave us free will so that we can choose to love him in return. So what do free will, love, and forgiveness have in common?

If God controlled us, that wouldn't be love. If God didn't forgive us when we exercise our free will, that wouldn't be love either. So God forgives. Jesus Christ showed us what it meant to forgive, even from a human perspective. Sure, he was God and he could have simply given the word and rescued himself. But Jesus' mission wasn't to impose himself as God on humanity. His mission as God was to forgive humanity for the wrong done to Himself and to humanity. Another facet of Jesus' mission was to show that humanity had to be a part of God's mission. He showed us we should forgive others for things we don't have control over.

We can't control other people's life situations. We can't control traffic. We can't control other people's oversights. You can't control the fact that I sent this daily devotional out so late.

We can control how we react to life.

Have a great day.

p.s. Please forgive me for the late devotional!