From stuck in the mud to moving forward
A pastor was typing the monthly newsletter for his congregation, and wanted to remind the church that the night of the 3rd Sunday of the month, a Singspiration would be held with another church. The Singspiration was a time of singing together, and would last until everyone’s voices got hoarse or until the pianist got tired, whichever came first. On the first Sunday after the newsletter was published and sent to the congregation, one of the parishioners approached the pastor and said: “Pastor, I don’t know if you are aware of it, but you forgot the ‘g.’” “What are you talking about?” the confused pastor replied. “In the newsletter article about the Singspiration, you forgot the ‘g’ in Singspiration.” Was the reply. “Are you sure?” the pastor replied incredulously. “I’m afraid so, pastor.” Not wanting to believe the parishioner, the pastor went back to his office, looked up the newsletter, and sure enough, the parishioner was right. The newsletter article announced to everyone there would be a Sin-spiration with another church the night of the 3rd Sunday of the month! You can imagine how the pastor felt.
Have you ever made a mistake in which you felt embarrassed? Mortified? Or just plain silly? Perhaps that mistake is something you can look back on and laugh at. Perhaps the mistake was more serious with deeply painful results. All of us have made mistakes in our life-time, and will make mistakes again before our life is over. I speak from experience, since I am the pastor in the story mentioned above (which you may have already guessed). So what do we do? Do we just casually brush off our mistakes/sin or someone else’s as though nothing happened? Do we constantly bring up the past, as though it is something we are tied to and can’t get free from? Do we take out our anger on those we love or try to get revenge for something beyond our control?
In the weeks that followed, as I wrestled with these questions, I felt like I was stuck in the proverbial mud, and I just couldn’t get out of it. In that time, I was often reminded of what John said in 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Forgiveness doesn’t mean we act as though nothing happened. It doesn’t mean we forget about it, because some things we can’t forget. Some we shouldn’t forget – because it seems we learn best from our mistakes. Nor does it mean that the relationship will be reconciled (forgiveness takes 1, reconciliation takes 2) Forgiveness acknowledges the reality of an event or comment, including the pain that may have resulted. At the same time, forgiveness refuses to respond in kind (1 Peter 2:23-25), utter threats of revenge, or use the past as ammunition in a fight. It does not live in the past. Rather, forgiveness entrusts the ultimate result to God, and presses forward in grace and truth, learning from past mistakes. As Dr Gary Rosberg once said, “You may be a product of your past, but you do not have to be a prisoner of it.” Jesus died and rose from the dead so that you need not be a prisoner of your past, present or future. In a relationship with Him, you may just find that He has a way of making good things come out of our mistakes.
Remember my earlier snaffoo? In the words of Paul Harvey “And now the rest of the story.” The night of the Singspiration, I met a husband and wife who were from my mother’s home town. As I ate dessert and visited with the couple, I suspected that they would be about my mother’s age, if my mother were alive at that time (she died when I was 9), so out of curiosity, I asked if the couple knew my mom. The couple replied “Well, our home-town only has about 250 people, so it is likely we knew her. What was her name?” When I told them my mother’s name, the wife put down her fork, elbowed her husband in the ribs, looked at him and said “Oh! One of your old girlfriends!” You can imagine the response that ensued! That moment enabled me to go forward with life in ways I never could have imagined! Jesus will enable you to go forward too, sometimes in expected ways, sometimes in unexpected ways. For as you turn to Him, He will, in His grace, enable you to go forward – 1 day, 1 step at a time.