Why is forgiveness so hard?  It’s difficult enough to just say the words, even harder to actually internalize them in your heart.  We want to wallow in our anger and lick our wounds like a dog, wanting all the world to acknowledge the injustice done and have vindication happen swiftly and publicly on a Hollywood- sized billboard.

Life seldom cooperates though, does it?  More often than not, we seem to be presented with the same offenses- forgive, pray, repeat; fanning our anger and resentment to a frenzied peak.  It’s hard to forgive when justice seems to be a gem of the rarest magnitude, only flashing its brilliance on the lucky few, never you- right?

The reality is that justice is something we all deserve, but really shouldn’t want.  If justice was served, you, me, and everyone else who ever walked this wild and crazy planet would be wiped out, demolished, blotto.  You see, that is the result and cost of sin-  death; and we all carry that curse.  So, by demanding justice, we’re not just pointing the finger at our offender, we’re demanding our own retribution as well.

Do you ever wonder if Jesus desired justice as he was mocked, humiliated, and hung on the cross?  In reality, He completely redefined justice by submitting to death on a cross as retribution for the sins of the world.  The only man to ever walk the face of the planet that didn’t deserve death as a consequence of sin because He didn’t sin, was the one who bore the punishment for it.  Rather than justice being served on the sins of humanity, He accepted the price of the sins of His own creation.  Is that fair?  Hardly.  Rather than allow the cost of sin (death) to be delivered to the deserving (humanity), He made the only sacrifice vast and valuable enough to atone for a world consumed with sin- the death of the universal Creator’s Son, Jesus Christ.  Justice was made obsolete and replaced with the ultimate offering of love.

Only the love of our Creator is big and monumental enough to rewrite the definition of the word justice in the universal dictionary of creation and replace it with the definition of forgiveness.  The forgiveness of a God who “So loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)  Want justice?  No thank you, I’ll take forgiveness in the form of Jesus instead.  It’s not fair, thank goodness, and thanks to God.

I pick up pennies.  Silly? Perhaps, they really aren’t worth that much.  They’re not even 100% copper any more.  What do you do with pennies?  I sometimes save them, sometimes give them away, sometimes even use them as they are intended- to make change come out to the specific amount needed to purchase something.  Most of the time however, I simply pick each one up, turn it over in my hand, smile and pocket it.  I find myself reaching for it throughout the day and find grounding in the knowledge of the imprint it carries, “IN GOD WE TRUST.” Not really an original idea, thought , or concept.  I actually think I read something about it long ago and it struck a chord with me.  It is uncanny how many times I find myself in a dark downward spiral due to the latest pummeling life has tossed my way and suddenly cross paths with a lonely abandoned copper coin.

To me it’s a message from heaven above shouting at me silently, “IN GOD WE TRUST!”  (exclamation added out of pure personal preference because I need to be shouted at on occassion).  It serves as a needed glass of ice water across my discouraged face as I am reminded that while I am focused on my worries, anger, or just plain self-centeredness, I can’t possibly be really placing my trust in God almighty.  Trust is absence of worry, it should mean complete confidence in God’s sovereignty and wisdom.  When I focus on the concerns of the moment, I am essentially saying, “I’m not sure I can trust you to help me take care of this, God.”  If we’re completely honest with ourselves, we really aren’t thinking of God at all in these moments, only ourselves and how this current crisis is potentially going to affect us. Trust is hard because it demands that we acknowledge that things don’t necessarily need to go our way and that just maybe God’s plans are bigger and wiser than our own.  It forces us to acknowledge the reality that it really ISN’T all about us.  It’s about how we work with God, fulfill His plans, fulfill His purposes, and how we glorify His name.  Trust reminds us that despite being GOD, he still cares and is involved in the lives of tiny ‘ol us, and He is MORE than capable of taking care of our needs.  Trust means that in the midst of bills, arguments, betrayals, sickness, loneliness, pain, and even death- God has us in his hand just like the penny I hold in mine.

So that penny doesn’t simply represent one cent to me.  It serves as a reminder from God to me  that  “You’re not in this alone, ”  it is a reminder that  “God cares,”  and a reminder that “God is with us. That copper colored message, “In God We Trust,”  reminds me to do exactly that- stop trusting in myself and my plans, and start trusting in the all power, omniscient, loving God that created me and everyone and everything around me to fulfill his ultimate plans and purposes.  So you see, in God’s plans, even pennies have purpose.

We are all born with a condition- a human condition.  This is both a blessing and a curse.  The blessing is that as humans we are each gifted with unique abilities.  These special gifts and abilities are arranged in concert to execute specific purposes that can only be discovered through exploration and the cooperation of God.

The curse of the human condition is that those unique perspectives and abilities that hold the key to our destiny are often buffeted and misdirected by our self-centeredness.  Selfishness is the root of all sin and we all bear the burden of it.  Selfishness is the catalyst for them all: lust, greed, wrath, envy, pride, sloth, gluttony.    We are born with the sin condition- the inability to not think of ourselves.  Therefore self-gratification drives our every move.  Ironically, it is this inescapable truth that can  link us together.  It is the commonality of the human condition that allows us to identify and empathize with others.  At a base level we all know,  if not for the circumstances of birth, the individual whose actions we are condemning could very well be reflective of our own actions if we had simply been born into different circumstances.  The atrocities committed over the centuries by other humans could theoretically be executed by the face that looks back at us each morning in the mirror over our bathroom sink.  Because each of those atrocities was motivated in one way or another by sin- sin driven by self-gratification- a quality every human being possesses to some degree.

What about exceptions? Sorry there are none- there are certainly people who think a lot less about themselves then most of us.  Don’t get me wrong, history is full of examples of amazing inspirational human beings:  George Washington Carver, Mother Theresa,  countless missionaries and martyrs through the ages…. However, they weren’t perfect human beings either-they were just human beings who learned to recognize their self-idolatry, ask for divine help,  and therefore were better able to resist the pull towards self-gratification.  It’s always there, lurking, in the dark abyss of our humanity- you don’t dare deny it’s there, for that is when it gains the power and stealth to ambush  our intentions. We can’t fight an enemy that we haven’t yet recognized or identified.  The first step to recognizing our weakness  and conquering it is to compare ourselves to someone without that weakness- Jesus Christ.  He was man and God- Immanuel- God with us. Through His connection and oneness with God, He was able to feel the self-centeredness that humans are born with and not react or be subservient to that temptation.

Jesus is the ultimate role model who was able to completely and totally submit His humanity (synonymous with self-awareness) to God’s will.   Did Jesus, born of woman and God really WANT to die on the cross, and experience the incomprehensible horrors and pain that a Roman scourging and crucifixion manifested? I personally don’t believe so. The humanity of Jesus cried out in despair.  Remember his words in the garden of Gethsemane? “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (NIV) He began and ended the sentence focusing on what God the Father desired.  Yet sandwiched in the middle of that sentence was proof of the human portion of his being- he essentially asked God to spare him human suffering. Being both God and man he was very aware of what was coming, the suffering, the sacrifice, but He was also aware of God’s ultimate plan, purpose, and goodness, and chose to deny his human self. He could have demanded protection- He is the Son of God, after all.  All it would have taken was for Him to submit to his selfish desire for bodily preservation and protection from pain rather than submit to His God and Father. Yet being Jesus, His resolute purpose and passion was to fulfill God’s will by manifesting God’s love, ironically through sacrifice.  Can love and destruction really occupy the same space?  They did that day.

We’d like to think if we just try hard enough, we can be like Jesus.  We can be “good.”  We like to think humanity can be ranked into tidy categorized packages of “Good,”  “Better,” “Best.”  Even more so, we have the human tendency to compare;  sometimes the comparisons lead us to feel superior to others, sometimes the comparison is painfully humbling.  We want to believe that we can earn or deserve God’s favor by our outward displays of Christianity.  The truth is, to God- who sees the heart and the thoughts behind the actions-  we’re all broken, tarnished and stained.   So much so that God had to look away;  that is until Jesus stepped in between us and God.  The ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made on behalf of all humanity creates a filter through which God can look and see us whole, in the original form that he  created man to be, in communion with Him.  Likewise, only through Jesus are we able to look upon one another with love and compassion and with an unfiltered revelation that we are all one and equal in our worth.  Jesus acts as the ultimate “love goggles.”  It is impossible to look through Jesus upon a fellow human being and not see significance.  The sacrifice of the Son of God for all mankind creates unequivocal value for all human beings.  We instantly became creatures of infinite worth.  As a result, we owe it to God to use our gifts and abilities to magnify his essence of love and glory.  No, we can’t be as “good” as Jesus, but through Him we can use His power to fulfill the unique purpose He created each of us for.  Through Jesus, you ARE good enough.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton