The events, falling over 100 feet at 120 mph from the face of a cliff, on July 21, 2002 took a big
emotional toll on Craig and Steve. Both have relived the fall in their
minds countless times. Steve still chokes
up when admitting that the accident has been “trying on a bunch of different
levels.” He has had to
deal with his own feelings of guilt, as well as the pain of watching a good
friend suffer. But instead of
blaming Steve, Craig credits him for saving his life.
Now, place yourself in
Craig’s situation. Do you think
you’d harbor any anger or resentment at your climbing partner? After all, you
trusted him to belay you, but he let you fall. If he had just
kept the rope attached, or made sure he heard what you said, you wouldn’t be
lying here in this hospital bed scared of what the future has in store for you.
But you see, that’s how Satan would have
you think. That’s how our
society would have you think because Satan is ruler of this world.
How many times
have you heard in the media this question, “This person really hurt you so how
do you feel about him/her? What do you
want to see happen to him/her?” And if the
interviewee doesn’t respond with the anger and revenge desired, the media
questions his motives and tries with other forms of questions to get him to
express some form of hate and revenge.
Satan wants nothing more than for you
and me to focus on all the pain, the grief, and the struggles. He points a finger to the one who
has caused all this heartache for you and your family. He wants this
person to be in the spotlight – like a close-up shot on a video camera. He wants you to
become angry. He wants you to blame this person for all your
struggles. He wants you to
believe that anger and revenge
will bring contentment and peace to your soul.
But that’s totally wrong. If you want a
soul that has peace, that is completely satisfied, then don’t blame someone else for all your problems.
So what about Steve? What must it have
been like for Steve to hear from his buddy that the fall was an accident and
that his buddy was not mad at him? After all, Steve had extreme guilt for the pain he had caused his friend.
Let’s be real, unless our hearts are as
cold as ice, we would feel the same way. We would have a
hard time, an extremely difficult time, forgiving ourselves. We’d always be
wondering how we could ever make this wrong – right again.
So what impact do you think Craig’s
forgiving attitude has had on Steve? On Steve’s
relationship with other people? On
Steve’s relationship with God? I really believe that if Craig doesn’t
forgive Steve, the guilt would eat away at Steve until he could no longer
function as a respectable, descent human being. Steve
still is emotionally attached to the event – the tears and choked up voice we saw in his testimony. There’s no
question: the guilt would wear him out
physically, and he would never find peace of heart and mind. This catastrophe
would haunt him the rest of his life.
But that’s the beauty
of forgiveness. It not only
released Craig from anger and hatred that would have kept him from mental,
physical, and spiritual healing. It also released
Steve from the pain and torment that goes along with the guilt of hurting
someone else – the guilt that comes when you and I sin toward God.
So always keep in mind that: Forgiveness brings healing to both parties
involved.
King David shares a
testimony with us in Psalm 32. It took him a
while, but he realized what failing to acknowledge and confess sins in his life
were doing to him. Allow me
to paraphrase verses 3 through 5.
·
Verse 3 - When I
held onto my sin (which we can only guess what it was) my body began wasting
away because of the burden and guilt of my unconfessed sin.
·
Verse 4 - Day and
night, God kept reminding me of my sin and it began to wear me down to the
point of exhaustion.
·
Verse 5 - Finally,
when I acknowledged my sin before God and tried to hide it no longer, He
forgave the guilt of my sin.
Listen to what Christ said about an
unmerciful servant in the Gospel of Matthew. He said, there
was a servant whom was brought before the King to settle his account. He owed the king
millions of dollars. The servant
didn’t have this kind of money so the king declared he would take the servant’s
wife, children, and possessions and sell them to repay the debt. (I know some of you men right now might be
thinking that sounds pretty good, but STOP!
You’re going to miss the point.) The servant fell
to his knees begging and pleading that the king would give him more time to pay
off the debt. The king took
pity on the servant and cancelled all of his debt. (Man wouldn’t that be nice if our Mortgage
Companies forgave us our loans?)
But here’s the point Christ want us to
see. The same servant
left the King’s throne and went head hunting. He found his
buddy who owed him a few dollars. He grabbed his
buddy by the throat and began choking him, demanding that he pay back the few
bucks. His buddy finally
frees himself from the choke hold and falls to the floor gasping for air. When he finally
gets his composure, he begs the servant to give him more time to pay off the
debt.
Well, what did the servant do at this
point? Was it: A) Did
he remember what the king had generously done for him and likewise do the same
for his buddy? Or B) Did he continue in his fit of rage and have
his buddy thrown into prison until the debt could be paid? If you answered B, you are correct and
the prize is: the satisfaction of knowing
your Bible.
But the story doesn’t end here.
There were some
tattletales, other servants, who went and told the king all they had seen. The king was
distressed by the news and called the servant back to his throne. The king scolded
the servant, reminding him of all his debt that had been canceled because of
his begging and pleading.
He asked the
servant, “Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your buddy just as I had on you?”
The king didn’t wait for an answer. He quickly had
the servant thrown into prison where he would be tortured until he could pay
back the millions of dollars he owed (which in reality meant never and
scripturally meant the judgment of hell).
Christ concludes the story with these
words, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you
forgive your brother from your heart.”
(Matthew 18:35)
He also tells us these words in Matthew
6:14-15, right after he taught His disciples the Lord’s Prayer: “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.”
Those aren’t my words. Those are Christ’s. And I think He
knows something about God that a lot of people don’t want to admit or accept –
God will not accept us failing to
forgive the person who hurts us, even in the most criminal way.
God says to you and me in my words, “I put
up with your misfortunes and sins against me all the time. I grant you grace and mercy constantly. I forgive you. But, I will not accept you failing to do the
same for those who sin against you. I
want you to show the same grace and mercy to others as I have shown to you.”
Wow!
Those are tough words, but they’re the truth as given to us in the
Bible.
So if Craig does what Satan would want
him to do – to blame Steve and never forgive him – Craig will not find peace,
his own sins won’t be forgiven, and his body probably won’t heal because of all
the resentment he would be harboring for Steve. His focus would
be on Steve and not on what he would need to do to help his body heal.
But if we go back to David's testimony in Psalm 32, we see what happens when sin is no longer covered up and hidden from God. (Yea, be real - like we can ever hide our sin from God!)
Listen to David’s
joy that resounds in his words because he has been released from this burden of
guilt that surrounded him while he tried to hold onto his sin.
"Blessed is he
whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the
man whose sin the Lord does not count against him, and in whose spirit is no
deceit." (Psalm 32:1-2)
Forgiveness is not solely for the benefit of the other person, though it
sure did help Steve to know that Craig had forgiven him. Instead, forgiveness also benefits you and me. Forgiveness
brings about healing. Forgiveness releases us from the guilt of
our mistakes. Forgiveness brings us peace of heart, mind,
and soul, and allows us to function
as God intended.
And the best thing about forgiveness is that it gives
back to us the life we want.
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