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A powerful song of praise reverberated off the walls of Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Sunday morning, setting the tone for what was to come. The Rev. Dr. Johannes Christian inspired all who would listen with his story of forgiveness and the grace of God. “There is a little bit more about me than ‘that man that was hit in the head with a rock,’ ” said Christian. In July 2001, Christian’s life was forever changed when a 7 pound rock crashed through the windshield of his car while driving on Interstate 70 in Clark County.
The rock, hurled by Jacob McNary, a young troubled boy standing on an overpass, crushed Christian’s face and caused him to be permanently blind. “It was like a bomb exploded in my face,” said Christian, describing the pain he felt that night. He drew gasps as he revealed photographs of his injuries. “I do not do this to glorify what Jacob did, but to understand the miracle of God,” Christian said. Dr. Stephen Schmidt of Kettering Medical Center has preformed more than 30 surgeries on Christian, “In the midst of tragedy, God raised up Dr. Stephen Schmidt,” Christian said. “He assured me that I would look just like Denzel Washington!” Christian also made it clear to Dr. Schmidt that he didn’t want a nose like Michael Jackson’s.”
People ask how he can laugh now and he tells them, “I don’t know what I look like now, but I’m told that I look charming.” Christian added that the road to forgiveness was not easily traveled. “I was mad; I couldn’t understand why God would let this happen.” He later realized that some things happen so that the “Son of God may be glorified.” “Forgiveness is an easy word to say, but it’s a hard thing to do-that’s why I’m here said Christian. He encouraged the crowd to let go of their anger and heal, to love one another, because “life gets better emotionally, physically and psychologically.”
Romans 8:28:
We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are according to his purpose.
But sometimes forgiveness doesn’t make sense. Forgiveness, which is the grace that God offers to us and that we are to offer to each other. And sometimes we need not look any further than the mirror to see the person to blame for our suffering. Sometimes it is easier to blame a target than give it to God and walk away.
In Charles Dickens classic novel Great Expectations is an eccentric old lady named Miss Havisham. By the time we meet this lady in the story it is her birthday and years earlier she was to be married on this very calendar day. She had been dressed for her wedding day, the cake was beautiful and waiting as the wedding party. But at twenty minutes to nine she received word that her fiancée had run off with another woman and there would be no wedding. From that moment on life stopped for Miss Havisham and the clock still stands at 8:40 AM and heavy drapes hang on her windows blocking life on the outside out and Miss Havisham is always ill, never happy, as she sits and contemplates what could have been, “I don’t believe this”… and stews in her anger and unforgiveness.
Has the clock stopped in your life? Was there a moment when someone or something happened to hurt you and everything changed? Are you stuck with heaviness blocking the outside world out while you brew?
In our lives forgiveness is not a method to be learned, as much as a truth to be lived. Freedom, that is an internal gift, a state of mind that we cannot receive from this world but only from being in an internal state of peace with God. Hearts shattered by tragedy and transformed by love.
In his book The Freedom of Forgiveness pastor author John MacArthur vividly describes the results of unforgiveness: “Unforgiveness is a toxin. It poisons the heart and mind with bitterness, distorting one’s whole perspective on life. Anger, resentment, and sorrow begin to overshadow and overwhelm the unforgiving person-a kind of soul pollution that enflames civil appetites and emotions.”
In the Greek language the word bitter comes from a word meaning “Sharp” or “pointed.” Thus those who refuse to forgive risk poisoning their own lives and the lives of those around them. Which is why the writer of Hebrews wrote in:
Hebrews 12:15-16:
See to it that no one fail to obtain the grace of God; that “no root of bitterness” spring up and cause trouble and by it many become defiled; That no one become immortal or irreligious like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
Do you remember Luke 23:34?
And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.
OH I SEE YOUR FACES which speak louder than words…. “I DON’T WANT TO FORGIVE THEM, FOR THAT MEANS I HAVE TO GET ALONG WITH THEM AND ASSOCIATE WITH THEM! GOD KNOWS I DON’T WANT THAT!!”
So what’s the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation?
It takes one person to forgive; it takes two to be reunited.
Forgiving happens inside the wounded person. - Reunion happens in a relationship between two persons.
We can forgive a person who never says they are sorry.
We cannot be truly reunited unless one is honestly sorry.
We can forgive even if we do not trust the person who wronged us to not wrong us again.
Reunion can only happen when we can trust the person who wronged us to not wrong us again.
Forgiveness has no strings attached. - Reunion has strings attached.
Along with this, one who forgives does not mean that one forgets but they hand it over to God and ask God to forgive the one who has hurt them.
God who watched Judas sell His only Son out for money. God who knew as His only Son was suffering the disciples would not be found near the Old Wooden Cross at Calvary. God who knows the pain of those nails of sin that were driven into His Son’s hands and legs as the pain of unforgiveness penetrates pain into the bones and body of those who hold un-forgetfulness within themselves.
Go ahead, hold onto your unforgiveness and self-destruct while those you make the choice to not forgive go on living with no pain in their life. Go on and self-destruct…. Or, give it to God.
Charles Tindley was born into slavery in 1851, “My father was poor as it relates to this world’s goods,” Charles wrote, “but was rich in the grace of God. He was unable to send me to school or to keep me with him in his little home. It therefore became my lot to be hired out and the people I lived with were not all that good. Some of them were very cruel and I used to find newspapers on the roadside in order to study my ABC’s from them. During the day I would collect pine knots, and when the people were asleep at night I would light these pine knots and with fire-coals, mark all the words I could make out. I continued in this way, and without any teacher, I could read the Bible.” One day Charles slipped into church and when the preacher asked any child who can read the Bible come forward he came forward as everyone stared at him and referred to him as “the boy with the bare feet.”
From that moment Charles Tindley decided he was going to get an education. After emancipation, Charles moved to Philadelphia and received his first full time job in serving God as he was the church janitor. He read every book he could and believed that while he could not afford to go to school by reading, “I was able to let the schools go through me.”
In 1885 Charles Tindley applied for ordination and one of the other candidates asked him. “How do you expect to pass your examination? The other candidates and I have diplomas. What do you hold?” “Nothing but a broom,” was Tindley’s reply. But the boy with the broom went on to become a world-famous pastor, preacher and hymnist.
Charles Tindley made a choice with his life, He could: hold onto hatred for how he was born, raised, survived in this world… or, let go of his anger and unforgiveness and give it to God and make something out of his life to serve God.
Where are you at this very second? …Mad and unforgiving because of the cards you’ve been dealt… or willing to leave the unforgiveness that you hold inside of you at this moment at the foot of the cross?
Leave it at the foot of the cross which Jesus knew He was going to hang on and die the next day as Jesus sat in the Upper Room with His disciples and took the bread, broke it and said, Take, eat, this is my body broken for you. Then after supper Jesus blessed the cup and said, Take, drink, this my blood of the New Covenant shed for the forgiveness of the sins of many. Drink this often in remembrance of me.
As you come, leave that which you cannot forgive at the foot of the cross and receive the body and blood of Jesus.
Hear the words of the song Charles A. Tindley wrote: “Nothing between my soul and the Savior, Naught of this world’s delusive dream; I have renounced all sinful pleasure Jesus is mine! There’s nothing between my soul and the Savior. So that his blessed face may be seen; Nothing preventing the least of his favor: Keep the way clear! Let nothing between. Nothing between many hard trials, though the world against me convene, watching with prayer and much self-denial, triumph at last with nothing between. Nothing between my soul and the Savior, so that His blessed face may be seen; Nothing preventing the least of His favor: Keep the way clear! Let nothing between.”
Let us be in prayer,
Father God, in this world there are those who may hurt us whether it is verbally, emotionally, physically, psychologically, or by attacking us right where it hurts the most and trying to destroy us. Whatever their reasons are, however they may attempt to hurt us, even if they do hurt us may we forgive them through you Father God. For only when one makes the choice to forgive those who have hurt us may one be internally free. Only then may we truly know the words, Shackled by a heavy burden, ‘neath a load of guilt and shame, then the hand of Jesus touched me and now I’m no longer the same. He touched me, O; He touched me, and O the joy that floods my soul. Something happened and now I know He touched me and made me whole. Amen
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