The challenge of forgiveness

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else;

you are the one getting burned. ”

~the Buddha

I recently heard a story about an eight year-old boy whose mother caught him in a lie. Horrified, the child ran up to his parents' bed room, got under the covers of their bed, and stayed there for nearly two hours until his father came home. Under the heavy blankets, sweating in the dark, the boy wallowed in his guilt and shame. When his dad found him there, he pulled the covers off his son and pulled him onto his lap, where the boy cried and cried. "There is nothing you can do to make me love you less," the father said over and over again. "There is nothing you can do to make me love you less."

Even when grace comes to us like it came to that boy, like a long drink of cool water in a parched desert, the work of atonement is not over. We have to confess, apologize, seek forgiveness. And while the human beings we have hurt with our words and actions may not readily forgive us, we can take comfort in the fact that God is always running toward us with open arms, ready to pull us close and say over and over, "There is nothing you can do to make me love you less."

Forgiveness is indeed powerful. It can also be elusive, difficult to give and at times even more difficult to receive. Starting this Sunday, September 13, we will embark on a study of forgiveness during our Adult Education at 11:15a.m. We'll begin with a showing of the documentary "The Power of Forgiveness." This film examines some of the most challenging situations in which people have extended and received forgiveness: the conflict in Northern Ireland, the Holocaust, and 9/11, to name a few. Come to worship at 10a.m. and stay for the movie. And may you know that God is always ready to forgive you and to guide you in forgiving even those who have hurt you most.