Matthew 6:14 by Jason G. Lutz

Matthew 6:14 by Jason G. Lutz

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”
‭‭(Matthew‬ ‭6:14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)
The responses to this weekly devotion over time have suggested that the best ones are the ones in which I tell on myself.  This makes a-lot of sense because empathy is an amazing work of the Spirit.  In this vain, I have another story of Jason being found wrong.
I believe it was in October and Elisa sent me to get doughnuts for Evan’s class at school.  This was really not an issue, as I like to run down in the flats of South Charleston, and I could pick them up at 6 a.m. when the store opened.  Turns out this was actually not so easy.  6 a.m. and they did not open.  6:05 and they did not open, despite my knocks on the door.  6:10, I was mad and stormed off to buy cookies, swearing off Krispy Kreme forever.
At least for three months until I forgot and went to pick up doughnuts for our Bible Study.  As you might imagine Evan and I were greeted warmly, timely, and Evan smiled his way to a free doughnut.  While no one but me was the wiser, it was a tremendous reminder that God wants us to forgive and move on, as it was I who was being petty.  Had I continued my protest, I would have missed out on a great experience with my son.
When we talk about forgiveness we tend to move immediately to the extreme: how do we forgive the holocaust, how do we forgive broken trust, or how do we forgive an injustice?  All I can say here is that forgiveness in these things is hard and takes time and prayer.  But my point is that these types of things are not what we, the overwhelming majority of the time, are struggling to forgive.  We struggle to forgive a store for opening late, we struggle to forgive honest mistakes, and we struggle to forgive an unintentional harsh word said in haste.  Is it not amazing how we allow these molehills to become mountains?

 

Grace be with you,

Jason

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