FORGIVE

Amongst the most emotional passages in the Bible, is the one from Joseph in Genesis and it gets me every time. Joseph had become the Prime Minister of Egypt but not before years of real struggles, first as a trafficked young man into slavery and a prisoner for years. These are amazing lessons of grace and forgiveness that are just hard for a mere human like me. Joseph outdid us all. When it was time for him to reveal himself to his brothers, some of whom by the way were responsible for selling him into slavery. That level of forgiveness seems beyond our natural ability, but we can rise to the challenge like Joseph did and it is our calling as Christian believers to forgive. Jesus pronounced that same bid when He asked us to love our enemies and to do good to those who hate us and to bless those who curse us and to pray for those who abuse us. That’s what is different about God’s Kingdom. I can speak for myself but listening to the news would raise anyone’s Blood Pressure and my frustration levels can easily hike. The good news is the rules of God’s Kingdom seek to raise our healing levels and to stabilize us. If only we could listen to God’s Kingdom’s precepts and live them out, we would sense God’s heart beat for us. These precepts are poignant for us, especially when living in an adversarial atmosphere: Out of everything we say or react to: “Be merciful just as your Father is merciful, don’t judge, don’t condemn, forgive, do good…” no matter how high your frustrations maybe, still forgive. If we do this diligently, the world may depict us as weak. But still, we have to forgive, even if all the world around us won’t care to. The voices of unforgiveness are everywhere. Jesus tells us to do to others as we would have them do to us. We will not use this when it’s convenient for us. We have to care. It’s our responsibility as believers to care especially if we have inflicted pain on others. We recognize our weaknesses yes but, we are able to rise above our natural capacity and reach true grace and forgiveness. We may think we can’t forgive but we can! Jesus is our ultimate example. He forgave us: it was costly/grueling. Joseph is also a great example for us. He forgave his brothers and embraced them as if nothing had happened. He said: All of it had happened for a reason: to save our entire family from 7 years of famine. What a perspective! No grudges left whatsoever! We are to love even when it doesn’t make sense, still love, because that’s the character of God. We are capable of the supernatural when we love! No wonder the Gospel of Luke challenges us: “If you love those who love you what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. Love your enemies and do good expecting nothing in return.” How extraordinary! This is clearly not the way of the world. Truth be told: The world will rejoice at the misfortune of others, and will deal only with those whom they can benefit from. Still, in the midst such mess, God can be in the midst of events that go differently from what we had hoped for. God’s vision is far greater than the pcurrent pain we are going through. His purposes beyond our pain are wise! In my recent travels, a couple told me their story of how they were stripped of all their belongings (they stole them when they offered to carry the load since the parents were both carrying their children) plus they got lost in the jungle. But in the rollercoaster of events that followed, they met a bunch of kind people to direct their steps until they were found by other Christian believers. They learned many lessons: (1) loving their enemy helped loosen their situation. (2) God rescued them using their enemy. (3) They learned not to judge, not to condemn, (4) and the more focused they were on God and not on their pain, the easier their journey became. Similarly, the more Joseph focused on himself, the tighter his situation became. He once had asked a man in prison to remember him after he was restored to his royal functions and it turned out the man completely forgot about him. That's what happens when we try to fight for ourselves. The closer to God he was, the closer to his rescue he got. He understood that life in God is not always a road to prosperity, consequently he became quieter and patient and longsuffering just like God is. May we become more like our God! Amen.