At that point, Peter got up the nerve to ask, “Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?”
22 Jesus replied, “Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven. Matthew 18:21-35
Back to the future, a movie about a teenage time traveler who goes back in time when his parents first met who almost didn't become a couple when he accidentally crossed paths with his teenage 'mom's who sheepishly fell in love with her future 'unborn' son while crooning his name, Calvin Klein. Each time he came back to the present, he discovered something eerily went wrong with his family. He knew he had to go back to 'fix' the problem.
It took several 'Back to the Future' movies before he was able to fix his otherwise dysfunctional family.
For most of us, the thought of traveling back into time to have to talk with one's great-grandfather regarding the dangers of drinking alcohol, or traveling back to when your father was a teenager and listening to his pain from the loss of his sister is literally impossible.
While we wish we could undo the damage trauma brings to our family tree, we cannot.
But there is someone who can. When God sent his son to earth it was his intent to tell you how much he loves you. When Jesus took his final breath on the cross, he looked up and exclaimed 'It is finished', as though He were telling the world that 'my blood' is sufficient for you and you are forgiven.
To those who create little monuments devoted to their 'gods', he gave us the Gospels to point us the way to life and happiness. Instead of gods who are dead, he reminded you that Jesus is very much alive and walks and talks with you.
To those who chose to make daily rituals as a way of finding God, he appears in their dreams providing powerful images that bring people to Jesus and lets them know that those rituals are no longer necessary to have a relationship with God.
To those who struggle with PTSD, nightmares, and the inability to sleep God reminds you that He truly understands your pain and wants you to pray instead of worrying and becoming increasingly consumed by anxiety and worry.
To those who use drugs and alcohol to escape the pain, he reminds us that He alone will heal your pain.
To anyone struggling with social anxiety, he reminds us that give you the confidence to be around people.
I've read enough articles to know that so much of our health problems are the result of the stress that comes out of our inability to forgive. In many families, this unresolved grief can go back several generations with the transference to future unsuspecting generations as though those members were hit by the 'proverbial' bus wondering where that came from.
Most of you who have been reading these blogs know that our family lost a daughter after what was supposed to have been routine surgery. At the beginning of my grief, I was angry with God, with the medical system and with anyone else who steered us toward our calamity.
But what you do not know, my journey ultimately lead me to Cross of Christ where I heard the gentle whisper of God reminding me 'my grace is sufficient for the pain you endured when your daughter died.
My road to forgiveness began in the office of the Jewish attorney who took me aside and reminded me that they could find nothing the doctor might have done differently to reverse to the tide of events. He encouraged me to do what he and his wife did after the loss of their daughter and do things in this life to honor her legacy.
Quite literally, his words set me on a different trajectory timeline than the one I was presently on.
Not long after that conversation, I wrote a letter of 'forgiveness' to my daughter's doctor and mailed it to him. Not long after, his office called me to say that the doctor was truly blessed by our families letter and wanted to meet with us.
The moment we met with him was in all fairness the most touching time we ever had with a medical professional. All of us were passing the Kleenex box to dry up the occasional tears as we reminisce the events of this journey. While I estimated we would only meet for 10-15 minutes, our meeting went for at least an hour. It seems none of us wanted this gathering to end. We reminded him that the next time Maria sees him she would thank him for his service of helping children with special needs.
We may never know the impact this 'forgiveness' meeting has on Maria's doctor or to any of my future family until we get to heaven, but I do know that my faith placed me on a more solid ground instead of the slippery sand that grief can resemble.
To my future generation's, I want you to know that Jesus will be there to comfort you when losses come, and when they do, the best thing any one of us can ever do is to draw near to God while placing one foot in front of the other and keep on going to Church regardless of how you may feel from moment to moment.
What I didn't know at the time I accepted Jesus into my heart in that little Christian coffee house it became the moment Jesus began building my firm foundation of which not even the loss of my future daughter could shake.
Yes, there is power in forgiveness and it can set your future generation on a better path.
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