Forgiveness

I woke up today to the news of what happened in Charleston, SC at the Emanuel AME church.   How utterly heartbreaking. I found myself wanting to rain down wrath on the young man that did this horrible thing. It makes me thing of a hymn sung by the Church for many years, "Oh soul are you weary and troubled, no light in the darkness you see. There's light for a look at the Savior, and life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace." This world feels so dark oftentimes, and it does cause me to feel weary. Only when I fix my eyes on my Savior Jesus do I find that sense of balance, and hope that is sometimes lacking.

So, I wasn't feeling very forgiving toward this young man. I then heard about a man who posted on this guys Facebook page. His words were words of grace and forgiveness. They were words of hope and light and salvation. He pleaded with this shooter to turn to Jesus and away from sin. The pleading man is African American. His heart was full of forgiveness, something I was lacking. It got me digging through my Bible Promise Book and looking up verses about forgiveness. Matthew 5:44-45 gives wise words on forgiveness that apply here and that I needed to be reminded of and think about.

"But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,[a] 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."

This world is filled with woe. This is another example of how wretched of a state we human beings are in, and how wicked our hearts are. Apart from Christ I would have no ability to really forgive this young man that has committed mass murder of God's people in a church and removing from so many any feeling of safety and security we have of being in that kind of place. There are so many levels of this tragedy that we haven't even begun to see yet. Though this young man did not harm me directly, he did harm me personally because my brothers and sisters lost their life due to his hate. My call though is to forgive and to pray and to let God take care of the situation and also to have faith that He will indeed take care of it.