Jordan and his Master's Thesis

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)

He who doesn’t forgive but keeps record of wrongs, abandons the human and holds on to the evil; love however abandons the evil and holds on to the human. (Friedrich Lang)

I haven’t written “random thoughts” posts for quite a while now, but I was pretty busy doing really important stuff for work and university.
But… today is Sunday
That forces me to lay aside my work and so I finally have some time to write about the things that kept my mind busy lately.

A lot of you will know the Lord’s Prayer… Some of you might even pray it from time to time.

In case you haven’t heard it until now, here it is:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil;
for yours is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever. Amen.
Matthew 6:9-13 (New International Version)

I highlighted a part which became very important to me during the last days…
“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

For some of you the first part of the sentence might seem reasonable. Come on… be honest: who doesn’t want to be forgiven? I’m pretty sure we all sometimes do stuff we aren’t proud of afterwards. Maybe it takes some time but usually we realize our mistakes and ask for forgiveness.

It’s simple math…
our starting point is 0
mistake = -1
asking for forgiveness = 0.5

So if we want to reach our starting point again after hurting somebody, we end up with the following equation:
0 = -1 + 0.5
(starting point = mistake + asking for forgiveness)

Hold on… Something is missing…
Does this mean we should ask for forgiveness twice to reach the starting point? Well… not exactly!

We forgot one important variable:
forgive = 0.5
This needs to come from the person we hurt! If this is missing our equation becomes an ugly inequation!

0 = -1 + 0.5 + 0.5
(starting point = mistake + asking for forgiveness + forgive)

Sounds ok to you?

Hmm… I guess it isn’t as easy as I hoped it would be! What if we are the ones who need to forgive? And what if our counterpart doesn’t regret what he did to us?

Right after the Lord’s Prayer we can read this:

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Matthew 6:14-15 (New International Version)

I’m not sure how you interpret it, but as far as I am concerned: I don’t see “if you forgive men when they sin against you and ask your forgiveness” written there.
It’s only: “if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”

Are you kidding me? We should forgive even if the one who hurt us doesn’t care how we feel and isn’t sorry at all?

Yeah… Now you got it

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. Romans 12:19 (New International Version)

How do you know you’ve really forgiven someone who isn’t sorry for hurting you?

You know it when the thought of their name or the sight of their face – rather than causing your blood to boil – causes you to feel sorry for them instead, to pity them, to genuinely hope they get this turned around. (Stephen Kendrick & Alex Kendrick)

I’m very tired right now and have quite a headache, but I just can’t go to bed before having finished this post…

Today I had a long conversation with a friend of mine. No, we haven’t been chatting online . It was in real life, and I’m so glad that it was! You can observe and discern emotions a lot easier when you interact with your dialog partner face-to-face. It’s something I really appreciate!

To cut a long story short: We’ve been talking about some ugly intrigues going on in his social surroundings which directly affect his relationship with his circle of friends and colleagues (if you are hoping to hear names I have to disappoint you).

For both of us the discussion ended in a win-win situation:
He was happy that he could get some things off his chest and I was enlightened because the confrontation with this topic made me truly realize how much pain, sorrow and agony it can cause to talk behind other people’s backs or to make defamatory remarks about somebody to others.

Furthermore for the rest of the day I had to think about a quotation I read a couple of years ago which I used today (maybe for the last time) as farewell after our talk:

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names. (John F. Kennedy)

The first part I totally agree with! But the second part gives me a headache!

Let’s have a look what the bible tells us about forgiveness:

Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:37 (New International Version)

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13 (New International Version)

We should forgive as the Lord forgave us… let’s have a deeper look:
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 8:12 (King James Version)

Think about it yourself and tell me what you believe is the right way to go…
One thing I know for certain: Forgive and forget is better than forget to forgive!

Good night and God bless you