Predicting Forgiveness

I've arbitrarily assigned significance to the number three. If something happens once it's random, twice probably a coincidence, but three times and it grabs my attention. So, Sunday morning when the pastor started his sermon on the book of Philemon I sat up a little straighter in my chair, as this was the third in a string of forgiveness themed messages I'd been hit with in two days.

Friday night I watched As We Forgive a documentary on the post-genocide reconciliation of Rwanda. A remarkable story of the unthinkable forgiveness being asked of the Tutsis as over 40,000 Hutu murderers are released from prison back into their communities.

That same day I had finished the wildly popular, yet mildly controversial new book "The Shack" by William P. Young. A compelling novel that invites you to re-evaluate your intimacy with the Father, and reconsider your understanding of His expectancy, not for performance, but for a relationship. In the book, the main character is faced with the opportunity to forgive wrongs done to him the likes of which I cannot imagine.

In both of these stories forgiveness is counter-intuitive, counter-cultural, and seemingly impossible. But in the non-fiction as in the fiction forgiveness once granted, brings reward not only to the recipient, but also peace and healing to the giver. What less would you expect from an act so closely resembling the love portrayed in the ultimate act of forgiveness God lavished upon us through Jesus' sacrifice?

So, Sunday as the lesson in church unfolded I began to put 1 and 1 and 1 together and wonder, "hmmm, am I supposed to be learning something about forgiveness?" After some consideration, I realized I don't have any torn relationships in need of this new found radical grace. And then it struck me that maybe I'm being prepared to forgive in the future. An alarming thought, but as much as I've been forgiven by my Papa, it shouldn't be asking too much of me to imitate His mercy on such a minor scale.