Could you forgive Emmanuel?
It takes great faith to receive forgiveness for our sin, and when our sin can involve the murder of family we most often see family cry for vengeance.
It also takes great faith to grant forgiveness to one who has done the sin…for the family who has lost their loved ones to forgive the repentant murderer.
I wonder which one takes more faith, to live a life forgiven or to live a life forgiving?
After watching this short video it is glaringly apparent that the life Jesus calls us to requires us to answer three questions:
Could I forgive Emmanuel?
Could I walk through forgiveness as he has?
Would I be willing to bring peace between the two?
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wONSfWNgQDA’]
Thanks to POTSC.COM for sharing.
Lessons From San Quentin
In light of my sermon this past weekend at Harmony Christian I thought this Post By Jud Wilhite, pastor of Central Christian Church in Las Vegas, @ POTSC was appropriate. Coming to peace with your circumstances is another way of saying, “I’ve traded puzzles.”
I’m enjoying a book by Bill Dallas on second chances called Lessons from San Quentin. At one point he asked a veteran prison guard what would happen if an earthquake hit and all the walls crumbled.
The guard said, “Every short-timer in here would run for the hills like there is no tomorrow…. Death row guys would be shufflin’ out of the gates in their ankle restraints as fast as they could…. And the Lifers who have made peace with themselves would stay right here. They wouldn’t run. In fact, I’d bet that most of them would immediately search through the rubble to help the injured. They know they‘ll leave this place when their time is up. They’ll walk out the front door with dignity.”
I love how he says the Lifers have made peace with themselves. These are second chance people. And after spending years in San Quentin himself, Dallas makes a point that the short-timers are often so focused on getting out, and on what they hate about their surroundings, that they don’t really experience change from the brokenness. But the Lifers are broken by it. In San Quentin they become the life-givers, encouraging others, caring about others and many experiencing transformation through a relationship with God.
How about me? Am I allowing my own struggles to drive me to God to see his transformation and grace? Or, am I so focused on getting through it and blaming others that I receive no real benefit from the experience? How about you?
