A Lesson in Forgiveness

Howdy folks! Hope everyone enjoyed their Labor Day weekend. Ours was pretty much a rainy holiday, but that's ok. It was a good excuse to stay in and watch movies. :-) I'm thankful to be working at a job that now allows for holidays. At the museum, we were always opened on holidays = you have to work! So it was a nice change of pace to actually enjoy being off. However, I am more than paying for it today. A holiday at the first of the month is never a good idea, especially in the accounting world. So I am super busy closing out books for the month. So I am typing this post very quickly in between wolfing down my pitiful Lean Cuisine I brought for lunch. But I wanted to be sure to post this while it was on my mind and getting distracted by other things. {EDITORS NOTE: It took me 3 hours to write this post! Told you I was busy today...}

The video at the end of this post really spoke to my heart last night. This certain gentleman was brought to my attention by my Sunday School teacher. Apparently all the girls in my Sunday School class have taken it upon themselves to make me the new class project--as in to find me a man. It's super embarrassing and not really something I am interested in doing at the moment, but they are sweet to want to do this for me and you just never know ;) I'm telling you, its like a scene from Fiddler on the Roof. Will Yentil please stand up? Matchmaker, matchmaker make me a match. Find me a find. Catch me a catch.....I'm hardcore into musicals, FYI.  Back to my story, this was a guy that my teacher, Robyn really wanted me to meet. He is the pastor at a local, newly-formed church that has really taken off, especially with the younger crowd. Robyn sent me a link to this video for me to watch regardless of if I ever wanted to meet this guy or not. His testimony is just that good. If you watch it, be prepared for a few tears and to be in awe of the power of Jesus and of forgiveness that comes about through Christ.
 


A Story | Big Picture Faith from Adam Kring on Vimeo.

How awesome is that story? Talk about beauty out of ashes! Praise the Lord. It just got me really thinking about stuff and how forgiveness is forgiveness is forgiveness. Its the same, regardless of what offense you are forgiving for. Big or small. Sure, it seems to be harder to forgive someone who intentionally does something that they know is wrong and that they know will hurt you as opposed to forgiving someone who, like Matthew, did something that was a complete accident. But at the end of the day its forgiveness. We forgive because HE forgave us first. Really makes you want to take account and look at your life to see if there is someone you need to forgive (or ask for someone's forgiveness) and to make peace with. To let Erik be an shining example of Christ and what it truly means to love one another. To be thankful for the valleys and the mountain tops in life because they are all ordained by God for a greater picture.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. ~Colossians 3:12-14