Inquiring Minds Want to Know...But Why?

Forgiveness Is Freedom

    I recently picked up a subscription to a journal called Plough Quarterly, published by the Bruderhof community.  I'd heard good things about it, and the journal recently co-sponsored an excellent forum with another journal I greatly respect.  I thought it could do no harm to check it out--and I haven't been disappointed.  The Spring 2017 edition featured many stories of personal courage on the part of Christ's followers.  One of them was most affecting and challenging.  The story of Steven McDonald is all about the courage to forgive.  

   A former New York City police officer, Mr. McDonald walked up to three teenagers in Central Park in the summer of 1986.  He wanted to ask them for any information surrounding a bicycle theft.  A fifteen-year-old boy drew a gun and shot Officer McDonald in the head, neck and arm.  The officer was rushed to the hospital, where his life was saved, but there was bad news: he would be paralyzed from the neck down for the rest of his life.  His wife, who was three months pregnant with their child, was devastated.  Mrs. McDonald was, however, a devout believer, and expressed confidence that this tragedy would be a chance for God to display how faithfully He can provide for His children's every need.  The constancy of her faith gave Steven McDonald the strength to forgive the young man who shot him.  As he set the boy free from condemnation, he discovered it was he who'd experienced a much greater liberation.

     We have often heard it said that when we harbor grudges against those who have wronged them, it is we who suffer.  Those who committed wrongs (or we imagine they've wronged us) do not experience the poisoning effect of the bile we build up inside while we condemn them.  The only way for the offended party to be truly free of the injury is to let it go.

     The Amish community of Nickel Mines, Lancaster County, understood this when their fellowship was most grievously wounded in October of 2006.  A seriously-disturbed man, Charles Roberts, entered the community's one-room schoolhouse, barricaded himself inside with the children, and began shooting the little girls in the back of the head.  He killed five and wounded five more--one of them seriously handicapped as a result--before taking his own life.  

   We can only guess at the pain suffered by this simple community of non-violent Christians.  We might expect them to harbor bitterness over this unprovoked, heinous act, or at least to draw in on themselves to nurse their wounds and protect themselves against further harm from "the English."  

   Their response was the opposite.  Within hours of the terrible act, the Old Order community presented themselves at the doorsteps of the murderer's family.  They folded his wife and three young children into their families, and set up a charitable fund to help the widowed mother to raise her children.  The grieving wife thanked them publicly, 

"Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need. Gifts you've given have touched our hearts in a way no words can describe. Your compassion has reached beyond our family, beyond our community, and is changing our world, and for this we sincerely thank you." (Damien McElroy, Daily Telegraph, London, 10/17/06)  

   The forgiveness and love of the Amish community set this family free from shame, and that freedom gave them the chance to heal.

     Of course, in forgiving, the Amish were also setting themselves free--free to experience the love and healing of God, and free to love and heal each other.  It is all-too-common for a victimized family to disintegrate under the burden of all their pain.  Bereavement can cripple emotionally and relationally, as well as physically.  It is bewildering to watch family members in pain wound each other, lashing out at the very ones who can most help them to heal.  If only they could forgive those who wounded them, and hold tight to each other, they could emerge with stronger bonds than before.  They could then share their story with other families in pain, and the liberating power of forgiveness would change the world.

     This was the experience of Officer Steven McDonald.  When he chose to forgive, it was first a means to protect his family and his soul.  He said of the decision,

I wanted to free myself of all the negative, destructive emotions that this act of violence awoke in me--the anger, the bitterness, the hatred.  I needed to free myself of those so I could be free to love my wife and our child and those around us. I often tell people that the only thing worse than a bullet in my spine would have been to nurture revenge in my heart.  Such an attitude would have extended my tragic injury into my soul, hurting my wife, son, and others even more.  It is bad enough that the physical effects are permanent, but at least I can choose to prevent spiritual injury. (Sam Hine, "God's Cop--A Tribute to Steven McDonald: Friend, Hero, Saint," Plough Quarterly, Spring 2017, No. 12, p. 13)

     Forgiveness, when unleashed, has a power which cannot be contained.  Though at first he just wanted to protect his marriage,  his family , and his soul, the freedom he experienced had to be shared.  Bound to a wheelchair, and continually hooked up to a ventilator, Mr. McDonald began to travel extensively with a message of what forgiveness can do.  He traveled to Northern Ireland, in the first days of an uneasy peace, and spoke to both Protestant and Catholic churches, even to the Northern Irish Parliament.  He told them that the only way to achieve true peace, and a harmonious future, was forgiveness on both sides of the divide.  He has traveled to Israel, where he counseled forgiveness to both Israelis and Palentinians.  In the wake of the 1999 Columbine school shooting, he co-founded a program called Breaking the Cycle, which gave McDonald the opportunity to talk to thousands of New York school students about the power of resolving conflicts non-violently.  World leaders, celebrities, and multitudes of normal people like us have had their lives changed by his story of the courage to forgive,  and the freedom it brings.

     All of this was done in a wheelchair.  Every breath he took to speak of forgiveness was supplied by a machine.  Officer McDonald forgave even as he suffered.

     The Amish community in Lancaster County forgave a family, and adopted them as their own, even as they grieved their lost, little girls terribly.

     Forgiveness is at its greatest, most world-altering power when offered out of pain.  Just ask Jesus.

"When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals--—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”" -- Luke 23:33-34 NIV

     Has someone hurt you badly?  Do you still wince at the betrayal of a trusted friend? Has a hurtful word pierced your heart from a source you would never have expected?  Are you smarting from the grief of a relationship ended all too soon?  Pain is far too common in this world.  We all have it, in one form or another.  The only thing we can do is choose what to do with it.  

   We can nurse our bitterness, holding our grudges as long as we live.  If we choose this path, we will have the luxury of righteous anger.  What we will not have is freedom, or love.  Bitterness will keep us from loving or being loved.  

   Unforgiveness will make it impossible to know God at all.  We will never be able to receive His gift of forgiveness, so long as we clutch the gift of bitterness that we have made for ourselves.

     If we choose, however, to forgive the hurt and release the pain, we will be free to love, and to be loved.

     And if we let God wield the power of forgiveness through us, we will change the world.  That is not an exaggeration.

The Battle of You

   When I was a teenager in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, fifteen or sixteen years old, I was excited to receive a copy of a book called This Present Darkness, by Frank E. Peretti.  This Christian novel was a great fad at the time, having sold a couple million copies.  I would venture that it did much to ignite the Christian fiction rage that lasted many years.  It is about a Christian pastor, Hank Busche, who faithfully prays that God would bring revival to a college town that is mired in corruption and New Age cult practices.  He endures a great deal of opposition from those in power, who go so far as to have him falsely accused of rape.  He is thrown in jail, along with a local newspaper editor who is hunting down the same trail of corruption from a journalistic angle.  Peretti shows that a great spiritual battle between angelic and demonic forces over-arches the trials of these two men--a battle for the eternal souls of the town's residents.

     Although I still own the book (I'm a pack rat when it comes to books), I have not read the novel since 1986.  I have forgotten much of it.  Still, thinking back on it thirty years later, I have an odd feeling of doubt whether I would agree with one-hundred percent of the theological ideas in the book.  I can say this, however: the book presented the idea that important battles are being waged in the heavenlies when we Christians face our daily struggles.  I am very much on-board with that truth, as the Bible itself teaches it.  The book quotes Ephesians 6:12 at the very beginning: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

     My mind is drawn, now, to the story in 2 Kings 6, when the prophet Elisha was being hunted by the king of Aram.  The prophet kept informing the king of Israel about the intended movements of their enemies, the Arameans, having been told of them by the LORD.  The Aramean king learned it was because the prophet Elisha was passing along the intelligence from God, and Israel's enemies knew they could make no headway while the prophet lived. The king sent out spies, discovered the prophet's whereabouts, and dispatched an entire army and cavalry to deal with him.  Talk about overkill!  As the armed force approached, Elisha's servant was the first to spot them.  He knew why they had come, and he freaked out. Panicked, he scrambled to Elisha and said, "Oh, no, my lord! What shall we do?"  Verses 16-17 show us an Elisha who was far from panicked--if anything, he was nonchalant.

16 “Don't be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”17 And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

     Elisha understood that the battles he saw before him were but visible shadows of the true war taking place in the heavenlies--a war that was quite one-sided in God's favor.  Living on his faith that the battle is the LORD's, he led the blinded Arameans into Israel's clutches, and went home in safety with his servant.

     We can read the stories of the prophets with admiration, wistfully thinking that such a thing would never apply to us.  We, after all, are not being dispatched to confront evil despots, bravely telling them off on God's behalf.  We're just normal people trying to get by.  Our struggles and griefs are commonplace--there is nothing heroic about them. So the stories of miraculous, divine deliverance don't cover us as we strive to make ends meet and love our families. 

     ...And just as we conclude this, we show that we are kindred spirits with Elisha's servant.  It didn't occur to him that there was more going on than met his eye.  He thought his number was up, that he was far too unimportant for God to move on his behalf.  Though Elisha was the big, important prophet, however, it didn't dawn on the servant that he was just as loved and precious to the LORD as Elisha was.  Furthermore, the LORD was revealing and glorifying Himself to the servant as much as to the master.  His soul, his relationship with God, and his preparation for being a royal son in the Kingdom of God was just as important as the great events being unfolded between Elisha, Israel and Aram.  The servant was inferior to Elisha only in the sense that his thinking was too small.  In the LORD's eyes, no one's life story is of lesser importance.  He intends to bestow victory upon each of His children alike, and to magnify His own name in the process.

     As I write these words, my heart is with several of my brothers and sisters in Christ who have recently faced big battles and endured great losses.  They've been stunned, hurt, and bewildered by these unforeseen griefs.  These dear ones are important to me (as are you), and so I have been saddened and mystified as I have stood with them. Why have some of these things happened to such lovely people?  These people are family--they have influenced us all with lives of faith, loving and giving.  Why them? In one sense, my answer is the same as yours: I just don't know.  We are mortal, and our viewpoint is all too limited.  Pain has the effect of limiting our vision yet further.  We can't see the wider purposes afoot.  We are hard put to see God moving.  We feel alone.  We only see that we hurt, and we don't see why it is happening.

     Let me tell you what I do know.

•      I know that while pain makes a person feel isolated, that is just a feeling.  Don't trust it.  We have a Redeemer who experienced the full weight of human trials, and therefore who understands and identifies with us in our hurt.  He stands by our side, and offers us the strength that He used to triumph over His own ordeals. 
•      I know that you are a child of God, equally cherished as any of the "celebrity" Christians who are more visible and seem to be making the "heroic" efforts of faith.  God does not see things to the same scale as we do.  Remember first/last, last/first? 
•      I know that your trial, your pain, is just as important to the Lord as anyone else's, because He wants you to enjoy his eternal kingdom as much as every other person.  Because of this, I know that placed in God's hands, your trial can result in your victory and God's glory, just the trial of Elisha and His servant.
•      I know that as real as your struggle seems right now, it is but a shadow of the true war being waged in the heavenly realm.  The Adversary, the devil, wants to destroy your joy, your faith, and your sense of closeness to God.  Satan wants you to be a hollowed-out, pain-wracked, shell of who God created you to become. Remember, your struggle is not with flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
•      I also know that the outcome of your battle is already decided.  The decisive victory against Satan has already been won, as Christ tore away the bars of sin and death.  In Jesus, you have already won.  The battle taking place in your own life is simply God coming into full possession of a battlefield that He has already won.

    

     Never forget that.

Who First?

            The day after the 2016 election, I awoke with a feeling of hopeful optimism.  After a long, long electoral year, the vote was finally done, and the nation's President had been chosen.  I was so looking forward to a halt in all the campaigning, all the emotionally-charged and vitriolic debates.  Finally, I thought, folks can get back to a normal mode of life, and whether or not they were pleased with the final result, we can at least take a break from all the politics.  That's what I expected, based on my memory of how things had gone in the past.

            Given how unusual this election had been, I should have prepared myself for an unusual aftermath.  Within a day or two after the election was over, I was on Facebook, issuing a general plea for folks to stop cluttering my newsfeed with politically-charged posts.  I exhorted them to take a deep breath of fresh air, and enjoy the fact that the campaign was now past.  Just focus on the upcoming holiday season--have fun!  It was like shouting into the wind.  Meanwhile, numerous posters went on haranguing on one side or the other, becoming steadily more shrill and hysterical.  I started blocking posts from various sources, and “unfollowing” friends that were particularly unrelenting.

            The part I find most discouraging is when I discover among the ranks of provocateurs those who profess allegiance to Jesus.  Whether sympathetic to the Democrats or the Republicans, I have read posts from Christians who, by their approval or their own words, align themselves with sentiments that are most un-Christlike.  The worst I have seen yet is a very large, Southern Baptist Church in Texas which has decided to withhold their mission giving because of a denominational staffer who espoused political views opposite to their own. This staffer called evangelicals to seriously consider whether their political stance aided, or hindered, the advance of Christ's Kingdom.  In response, the local congregation put a halt on their mission contribution, citing concerns with the direction of the entire denomination.  (Remember, this is a reaction to the views of just one man).  The fund from which the church is withholding goes to the ministries and salaries of missionaries all over the world.  But because one denominational official raised concerns with their political advocacy, the church decided to penalize an entire slate of missions efforts.  By the way, the pastor of the withholding church is one of the President's advisors.  When I learned that part, I was completely flabbergasted.

            In this one bewildering incident we uncover a mindset that is all too common among American Christians right now.  We might describe it like this: "My version of what America should look like takes precedence over my duty to Christ's Kingdom on earth."  Here we see a man placing his allegiance to an American President over his commission to shepherd his flock with the heart of Jesus, and to work for the spread of the Gospel around the world.  By his example, he has taught his church that defending a political position is a more important calling than modeling our hearts, words and deeds after those of Jesus, and spreading the values of His Kingdom over the world.  He is also causing his church to defame the reputation of the Church before a culture in desperate need of the very Gospel that is being so badly misrepresented.

This is just one, outlandish example, but we see the same trend working out in smaller ways, with professing Christians throughout the nation.  We see it when Christians, who align with either party, automatically line up behind the policies of that party instead of examining each issue in the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and of God's revealed Word.  There are many hot issues which illuminate this trend.  What we should do about all the refugees displaced by Islamic extremism is the most prominent, but there are other issues such as immigration, border security, health care, abortion, marriage, etc.  Each of these issues is packed with emotional TNT on either side.  But let me ask you a searching question: whatever you hold on these issues, why do you believe those things?  Do you hold those positions because of what someone has said on the radio or television?  Do you hold them because you are “all in” for your political party, and if that's what they say on the issue, they must be right?  Do you hold these positions because you are sold out to a certain picture of what America should be like? Because you want to protect your affluence and security? Or are your views on issues shaped by your long and careful study of what God's Word says about them? Have you thought long and hard, wrestled and prayed about how your King would have you represent Him with regard to these important matters?  I want to caution you here, with love.  When my identity as a middle-class American, or as a Republican or Democrat, is expressed before my identity as an ambassador of Christ's eternal Kingdom, there is a serious problem at hand.

In Revelation 11:15, we find a multitude of the heavenly chorus rejoicing because, at long last, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever." How we hunger for that day to come!  Until it does, you have been redeemed for a special purpose.  Your job is to represent the coming Kingdom, to announce its imminent and eternal victory, and to show the world the ethics and values of that Kingdom by your own actions, words and attitudes.  You have been called to be a living demonstration of how different life will be in the coming Kingdom, and already is among those of us who have believed the Gospel.  That's your one and only job.  One day, your diplomatic service will draw to a close.  There will only be one Kingdom, so no need for ambassadors anymore.  We will be recalled to the great Throne of the King, and we will bow our knees before Him.  On that day, He will not ask us if we were exemplary Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals.  He won't even ask us if we were exemplary Americans.  He will ask only if we faithfully represented the values and ethics of HIS Kingdom.  Lest we become swept away with all the political ferment of our day, I urge us all to waste none of our precious time with all that nonsense. We have bigger fish to fry.  I urge us all to remember that we are on the clock, that we have a King who has called us to represent HIS interests, and that there is precious little time to waste.  

Whatever your feelings about the slogan, "America First," that cannot be our motto as Kingdom ambassadors.  Our motto must now and always be: “Jesus first.”