How Sweet the Sound

Sunday night falls again. I'm usually not ready at all for Monday, but seeing as my kids have been home sick since Thursday and I actually have an entire day off and to myself tomorrow-bring on Monday!!....and some good thunderstorms would be a great bonus.....

As the weekend draws to a close, I have pulled the "Holy Ghost Lever" and put my feet up in my recliner (don't ask) and am sitting here enjoying my son's amazing new found ability at creating blues on the guitar, I realize I have much unforgiveness in my heart. I have held onto unforgiveness towards some people in my life that hurt me dearly. It's easy to rationalize it with "they don't deserve it" and "why should I be the first to make amends when they did the hurting?".

Of course if it were all laid out on the table by God right at this very moment, He in turn would tell me there is nothing I have ever done in my life that He hasn't forgiven me for, and if someone like me can be forgiven, who am I to hold a grudge?

I am currently reading a book by Phillip Yancey. Actually it's a two-fer deal-Where's God When it Hurts/What's so Amazing About Grace? I would like to leave an excerpt that I read this evening:

At last I understood: in the final analysis, forgiveness is an act of faith. By forgiving another, I am trusting that God is a better justice-maker than I am. By forgiving, I release my own right to get even and leave all issues of fairness for God to work out.
When Joseph finally came to the place of forgiving his brothers, the hurt did not disappear, but the burden of being their judge fell away. Though wrong does not disappear when I forgive, it loses its grip on me and is taken over by God, who knows what to do. Such a decision involves risk of course: the risk that God may not deal with the person as I would want.
I never find forgiveness easy, and rarely do I find it completely satisfying. Nagging injustices remain, and the wounds still cause pain. I have to approach God again and again, yielding to him the residue of what I thought I had committed to him long ago. I do so because the Gospels make clear the connection: God forgives my debts as I forgive debtors. The reverse is also true: Only by living in the stream of God's grace will I find the strength to respond towards others.
A cease fire between human beings depends upon a cease fire with God.


Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more, and grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.-Phillip Yancey.