Showing posts with label Forgiveness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Forgiveness. Show all posts
Saturday, January 19, 2013
The Curious Case of Lance Armstrong - Part 1
Thursday, November 8, 2012
My Peace I Give You
Yesterday Walmart announced that it would open their stores two hours earlier for Black Friday shoppers. So I guess it is time - time to start making lists, checking it, and shopping until you drop every bit of that hard earned penny into the deep pockets of a few privileged Chinese impresarios. Though majority of the US population has no concern for Christ anymore, we care all about Christmas, or at least Christmas shopping. We worry about finding ideal gifts for our family, friends and co-workers, and stress over it when we can't find suitable gifts. As a person who believes wholeheartedly in capitalistic societies, I wouldn't even dare to suggest that we should quit with all these gift nonsense. Instead, I would like to make some practical gift ideas for the upcoming holiday season.
We usually give gifts to people who are good to us; we also give gifts to people whom we like, love, appreciate or want favors from. This is also the reason why many of us struggle with the "gift of forgiveness". Forgiving others contradicts every thought process of a rational human being, it amounts to saying to the wrongdoer "Thank you for hurting me". Gifts are free and deserving; the person who has wronged us no longer deserve anything free from us - they must "pay" for their actions. We would like to hold onto this gift of forgiveness for as long as we can. We like to see a genuine change of heart from the perpetrator before even consider forgiving him. We always expect some sort of an apology as a precursor. But what we see in the gospels is that Jesus has a totally different way approaching the issue of forgiveness. The best example could be one of the last things that Jesus did - while hanging on a cross, He prayed: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). Here, nobody asked for His forgiveness, nobody even showed any kind of remorse for their actions, they were mocking Him, challenging Him to "save himself if he was the chosen one". But for Jesus, it was simply a matter of putting preaching into practice, it was turning the other cheek to the one who struck you on the right cheek, it was handing over the cloak to the one who took possession of your tunic, and walking two miles with the one who forces you to walk with him one mile.
Forgiveness is a gift, a gift that one can give to an undeserving someone at an undeserving time. Forgiveness challenges human logic because we are being asked to give away something that is rightfully ours to an undeserving somebody, to reward somebody for being mean, rude, hurtful, unfaithful, and everything else that hurt us in some form or shape. Humans want revenge and retaliation when being wronged, and that makes forgiveness a gift from God - something not human. This is what God does, He forgives unconditionally. God made no demands of us before sending His only Son to die for our salvation on a cross, "But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
Ever wondered why God would insist so much about forgiving the transgressions of others? It was so important to Jesus that he even made it a condition - one of the few conditions that Jesus has in our relationship with God the Father - in the prayer that he taught us, "Forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us" (Luke 11:4). Here is the thing: amidst all our reasons not to forgive, it must be understood that when we forgive others, we do it for us, not for the other person. Forgiveness is freeing ourselves from the pains and torments of the mind. It is allowing God's grace to heal a heart that bleeds and a body that hurts, through the works of the Holy spirit. It is always good to remember that in The Lord's Prayer, "Deliver us from evil" comes after the forgiveness - there is no deliverance without forgiveness. Choose not to worry about the price paid for the gift of forgiveness, instead look at it as an investment in God's justice and love. It is far worse and cost is immeasurable to think that holding onto our right to hurt, to resent, to negativity, to anger, and to hate would somehow help us feel better.
"I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust" (Matthew 5:44,45)
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Finding Forgiveness - By Fr. Dwight Longenecker
There is a wonderful detail in the story of the Prodigal Son. When the runaway boy is lying in the frozen mud of the pigpen with only slop to eat, the King James Version of the Bible says he 'came to himself.'
What a profound psychological insight! At the heart of finding forgiveness is the gift to see ourselves as we really are and then turn to ask for help. Reality--true honesty about ourselves and other people must be at the heart of all forgiveness.
Forgiveness, by it's very definition, involves a truthful relationship. To be forgiven we must see ourselves as we really are. To forgive others we must see them as they really are. This is difficult because all of us mask our true selves with the person we wish we were or the person we would like others to believe us to be. When we 'come to ourselves' we are able, perhaps for the first time to find forgiveness.
The next step for the prodigal son was to decide to get up, dust himself off and head home to the father. This step requires courage. When seeking forgiveness in a relationship with another person it is easy to skirt the issue, avoid the person and hope that the problem will take care of itself. Did they say 'time heals all wounds'? They were lying. Time, on its own, doesn't heal anything. Forgiveness doesn't happen by itself. We need to take action. We need to get up out of the mud and head on home where we will find reconciliation and peace.
This is true in our relationships with one another, but it is also true in our relationship with God. We have to first see ourselves as we really are, then we need to see God as he really is. Here's the great part! God looks on us with pity not with blame. He is the loving father waiting to welcome us home.
If you want to find true forgiveness ask God for the gift to see yourself as you really are--both the good and the bad--and then ask for the gift to see God as he truly is. When that truth comes thundering into your heart and life you will be on the path to finding forgiveness--that path that leads to the warm welcome of your true home.
(Fr. Dwight is the Pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church in Greenville, South Carolina.)
What a profound psychological insight! At the heart of finding forgiveness is the gift to see ourselves as we really are and then turn to ask for help. Reality--true honesty about ourselves and other people must be at the heart of all forgiveness.
Forgiveness, by it's very definition, involves a truthful relationship. To be forgiven we must see ourselves as we really are. To forgive others we must see them as they really are. This is difficult because all of us mask our true selves with the person we wish we were or the person we would like others to believe us to be. When we 'come to ourselves' we are able, perhaps for the first time to find forgiveness.
The next step for the prodigal son was to decide to get up, dust himself off and head home to the father. This step requires courage. When seeking forgiveness in a relationship with another person it is easy to skirt the issue, avoid the person and hope that the problem will take care of itself. Did they say 'time heals all wounds'? They were lying. Time, on its own, doesn't heal anything. Forgiveness doesn't happen by itself. We need to take action. We need to get up out of the mud and head on home where we will find reconciliation and peace.
This is true in our relationships with one another, but it is also true in our relationship with God. We have to first see ourselves as we really are, then we need to see God as he really is. Here's the great part! God looks on us with pity not with blame. He is the loving father waiting to welcome us home.
If you want to find true forgiveness ask God for the gift to see yourself as you really are--both the good and the bad--and then ask for the gift to see God as he truly is. When that truth comes thundering into your heart and life you will be on the path to finding forgiveness--that path that leads to the warm welcome of your true home.
(Fr. Dwight is the Pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church in Greenville, South Carolina.)
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
What medicine did Jesus use in healing the sick?
"Scientists have identified a gene that causes about one in 25,000 babies to be born deaf, and they hope the discovery will lead to new treatments. A protein called CIB2 is mutated in babies born with Usher syndrome type 1, who are profoundly deaf from birth and often cannot be helped by hearing aids."
I happened to come across this article a couple of days ago and I had to stop and think about it for a moment - first of all, I marveled at the geniuses who made the discovery, then I also thought about the advances in the medical field as a whole. We have come a long way from the government dispensaries of my childhood where every disease was treated with either a red or white colored solution kept in big glass jars. It seems like every time the medicine gets an upper hand on diseases, something new pops up in the air that make the scientists scratch their head again. Then I remembered, "...'Ephphatha!' ("Be opened") And immediately the man's ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly" (Mark 7:34,35). Jesus said "be opened", not "mutated CIB2".
Mutation is defined as a sudden departure from the parent type in one or more heritable characteristics, caused by a gene or a chromosome. Scientists were initially all over mutation. Evolution absolutely depends on mutations, this is the only way that new alleles and new regulatory regions are created. Mutation is the raw material of evolution. But this also seems paradoxical because most of the mutations are harmful, neutral or affect a single protein product while much evolutionary change involves myriad structural and functional changes in the phenotype. (from, Kimball's Biology pages). In short, mutation turned out to be not a good thing after all, it has the power and ability to turn human being into something not so human over a period of time.
When looking at mutation through a Christian perspective, one can easily conclude that God never intended mutation to occur in humans, "God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good" (Genesis 1:31). So God made everything including humans and liked the way they looked, therefore no need for Him to change it. If mutation was not in God's plan, then the only alternative is to look at the other side of the coin; could the devil be responsible, does the introduction of sin has anything to do with it? I believe the Medicine Man Himself has the answer for this question, it's in the method He used to heal the sick. "When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick" (Matthew 8:16). Notice that it says "all the sick", not "some of the sick"; when Jesus expelled the demons from those people, they were all healed and the mutations were gone from their body. Through sins, we allowed satan to change our bodily characteristics by implanting mutations through demonic mediums.
While associating Jesus' healings with casting out demons, often we fail to see the medicine He uses in His 'practice'. "'Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins' - he said to the man who was paralyzed, 'I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home'" (Luke 5:23,24). Jesus uses FORGIVENESS to heal - to mend the spiritual and the physical wounds of the fallen. When our sins are forgiven, our body and soul are restored back to the divine image in which it was created, "And be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God's way in righteousness and holiness of truth" (Ephesians 4:23,24).
Jesus talked a lot about forgiveness in His teachings because, apart from the original sin which we inherit, the root cause of all other sins can be traced back to anger, resentment and indignation. A minor aggravation, if left alone, can mutate itself to a much bigger aggravation over a period of time, changing the original characteristic of the annoyance, causing the bearer to be in pain, to be suffering and to be sick. In this state of being ill, we would not be able to approach our Creator, God our Father, for help. This is why He sent His only Son to us, to deliver us from our sins, to reconcile us with Him, "He was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed" (Isaiah 53:5). Absolute forgiveness to our neighbors - spouses, kids, parents, family, friends, co-workers and enemies - is an absolute necessity for us to offer our sins and sickness to Jesus Christ,"If you bring your offering to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your offering there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and present your offering" (Matthew 5:23,24).
Our unwillingness to forgive others is keeping us away from reaping the rewards Jesus Christ has earned for us by dying on the cross. Our anger and resentment are keeping Jesus from fulfilling the last spoken words of Him here on earth, "They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover"(Mark 16:18). Our anger and resentment has mutated itself into so many other forms and has a continuous effect on everything we think, every decision we make and everything we do or don't do; I learned it the hard way, and I am still learning it. I learned that the anger and resentment that we immediately identify in our lives is nothing more than the tip of an iceberg, with majority of it under water hidden from our vision.
As human beings, we are not created to be suffering here on earth. He created us in His own image, meaning there were no imperfections or diseases in us at the time of creation. We are the apple of our Creator's eye, we are created to enjoy everything He has created, "Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth" (Genesis 1:28). God wanted us to have authority over everything He created, but listen to satan talking to Jesus, "Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, "I shall give to you all this power and their glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me" (Luke 4:5-7). We handed over to satan what our Father has created and given to us; through sin, we are allowing him to take over all of our Father's beautiful creations including the most beautiful of them all, ourselves. But Jesus, by paying for our sins with His blood, has already taken everything back from satan. All we need to do is to make a claim for what is rightfully ours, by accepting Jesus Christ as the Savior and Redeemer, by following His teachings, by forgiving others, by repenting, and by spreading the gospel by living it.
"Forgive your neighbor's injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. Should a man nourish anger against his fellows and expect healing from the LORD? Should a man refuse mercy to his fellows, yet seek pardon for his own sins?" (Sirach 28:2-4)
I happened to come across this article a couple of days ago and I had to stop and think about it for a moment - first of all, I marveled at the geniuses who made the discovery, then I also thought about the advances in the medical field as a whole. We have come a long way from the government dispensaries of my childhood where every disease was treated with either a red or white colored solution kept in big glass jars. It seems like every time the medicine gets an upper hand on diseases, something new pops up in the air that make the scientists scratch their head again. Then I remembered, "...'Ephphatha!' ("Be opened") And immediately the man's ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly" (Mark 7:34,35). Jesus said "be opened", not "mutated CIB2".
Mutation is defined as a sudden departure from the parent type in one or more heritable characteristics, caused by a gene or a chromosome. Scientists were initially all over mutation. Evolution absolutely depends on mutations, this is the only way that new alleles and new regulatory regions are created. Mutation is the raw material of evolution. But this also seems paradoxical because most of the mutations are harmful, neutral or affect a single protein product while much evolutionary change involves myriad structural and functional changes in the phenotype. (from, Kimball's Biology pages). In short, mutation turned out to be not a good thing after all, it has the power and ability to turn human being into something not so human over a period of time.
When looking at mutation through a Christian perspective, one can easily conclude that God never intended mutation to occur in humans, "God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good" (Genesis 1:31). So God made everything including humans and liked the way they looked, therefore no need for Him to change it. If mutation was not in God's plan, then the only alternative is to look at the other side of the coin; could the devil be responsible, does the introduction of sin has anything to do with it? I believe the Medicine Man Himself has the answer for this question, it's in the method He used to heal the sick. "When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick" (Matthew 8:16). Notice that it says "all the sick", not "some of the sick"; when Jesus expelled the demons from those people, they were all healed and the mutations were gone from their body. Through sins, we allowed satan to change our bodily characteristics by implanting mutations through demonic mediums.
While associating Jesus' healings with casting out demons, often we fail to see the medicine He uses in His 'practice'. "'Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins' - he said to the man who was paralyzed, 'I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home'" (Luke 5:23,24). Jesus uses FORGIVENESS to heal - to mend the spiritual and the physical wounds of the fallen. When our sins are forgiven, our body and soul are restored back to the divine image in which it was created, "And be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God's way in righteousness and holiness of truth" (Ephesians 4:23,24).
Jesus talked a lot about forgiveness in His teachings because, apart from the original sin which we inherit, the root cause of all other sins can be traced back to anger, resentment and indignation. A minor aggravation, if left alone, can mutate itself to a much bigger aggravation over a period of time, changing the original characteristic of the annoyance, causing the bearer to be in pain, to be suffering and to be sick. In this state of being ill, we would not be able to approach our Creator, God our Father, for help. This is why He sent His only Son to us, to deliver us from our sins, to reconcile us with Him, "He was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed" (Isaiah 53:5). Absolute forgiveness to our neighbors - spouses, kids, parents, family, friends, co-workers and enemies - is an absolute necessity for us to offer our sins and sickness to Jesus Christ,"If you bring your offering to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your offering there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and present your offering" (Matthew 5:23,24).
Our unwillingness to forgive others is keeping us away from reaping the rewards Jesus Christ has earned for us by dying on the cross. Our anger and resentment are keeping Jesus from fulfilling the last spoken words of Him here on earth, "They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover"(Mark 16:18). Our anger and resentment has mutated itself into so many other forms and has a continuous effect on everything we think, every decision we make and everything we do or don't do; I learned it the hard way, and I am still learning it. I learned that the anger and resentment that we immediately identify in our lives is nothing more than the tip of an iceberg, with majority of it under water hidden from our vision.
As human beings, we are not created to be suffering here on earth. He created us in His own image, meaning there were no imperfections or diseases in us at the time of creation. We are the apple of our Creator's eye, we are created to enjoy everything He has created, "Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth" (Genesis 1:28). God wanted us to have authority over everything He created, but listen to satan talking to Jesus, "Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, "I shall give to you all this power and their glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me" (Luke 4:5-7). We handed over to satan what our Father has created and given to us; through sin, we are allowing him to take over all of our Father's beautiful creations including the most beautiful of them all, ourselves. But Jesus, by paying for our sins with His blood, has already taken everything back from satan. All we need to do is to make a claim for what is rightfully ours, by accepting Jesus Christ as the Savior and Redeemer, by following His teachings, by forgiving others, by repenting, and by spreading the gospel by living it.
"Forgive your neighbor's injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. Should a man nourish anger against his fellows and expect healing from the LORD? Should a man refuse mercy to his fellows, yet seek pardon for his own sins?" (Sirach 28:2-4)
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