September is here! This year is going by ever so fast, as usual I look back and can’t believe we are approaching fall. I would say the kids are back at school but this year that is not the case for so many families. Let’s remember to pray for our children and teachers as they face learning amid the constraints of the Covid19 virus. This too shall pass.
Speaking of getting past things, it seems to me that life is always giving us opportunities to get over things that trouble us in our lives. There is an expression I have heard that when someone is offended by what somebody has done to them that they need to do, and I quote “Build a bridge and get over it”. The trouble with that saying is that we often lack the tools and materials to build such a bridge. My experience is that I would rather build myself a tent and live in my hurt and plot my revenge in my new town called Bitterness. After all, they deserve what is coming to them. I can look back on my years of ministry and I can remember how often people have hurt me. As I felt the pain of a broken heart, I sensed my hand reaching out for the tent pegs to set up camp in the town of Bitterness. My tears soon dry and give way to anger as I begin to plot my revenge on them who had hurt me. I begin by asking my traveling companion to assist me in the putting up the tent, as it is a big job. He says nothing but merely begins to help. As we begin to put up the tent, I once again notice the scars on his hands. I have spent a fair amount of time with him and he has told me before about the story of how he got them, but in my anger of my hurt from the wrong that had been done to me, I can’t seem to remember. As hard as I try I can’t remember how such terrible scars could have happened. I can’t stand it any longer so I ask him, “Master how did you receive the scars on your hands?” He looks at me with such tenderness I begin to feel my knees buckle. “They were place there when I took your place on the cross.” He replies. My knees are now no longer buckling because at that moment I find myself prostrate before him worshiping him as I ask for his forgiveness. He reaches out to me with those nail-scarred hands and begins to lift me up in his embrace. And as he embraces me with love and forgiveness he hands me tools to begin to build that bridge. You know, the bridge that I will need to get over the hurt. It is in forgiving those who have hurt me that I truly find freedom. I encourage you today forgive those who have trespassed against you, for in doing so you will be truly free indeed!