Never Ending

Thursday, August 10, 2023

Today’s post is a message of hope written by Anna Murdock.

Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me?  Seven times?”  “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!”  Matthew 18:21-22

I saw an older man

dressed in torn and dirty clothes.

He was in need of a shave

and surely a hot shower

would have felt good to him.

This man, walking along my route,

was mumbling to himself

and counting his fingers –

touching each finger to his thumb;

   first the right hand -

   one, two, three, four …

   then his left hand -

   one, two, three, four …

   then back to his right hand -

   one, two, three, four.

And so it went,

on and on

and on and on.

The counting seemed

to never end …

   from right hand to left,

   from finger to finger

   to finger to finger.

What was so important

to this man of the streets?

What words were needing

to come out and be spoken?

Was he just “another one of those”

who mumbled quietly

as they walked along

the roads of our lives?

As I continued my drive to work,

weary from the day before,

angry from two days before,

feeling very alone

from the week so far,

I too began to mumble

and count the ways

   to weariness,

   to anger,

   to aloneness.

How many times

am I to forgive

(both myself and others)?

From right hand to left,

from left hand to right,

and back to the right hand

again…

   from finger to finger

   to finger to finger …

   the counting seems

   to never end.

How many times and ways

are the words “Be not afraid”

whispered, written,

        shouted to all who fear …

               (and don’t we all fear)?

From right hand to left,

from left hand to right,

and back to the right hand

again…

   from finger to finger

   to finger to finger …

   the counting seems

   to never end.

And what about God’s Love?

How many times is this Love

   seen, felt, whispered,

    promised, given, and received?

From right hand to left,

from left hand to right,

and back to the right hand

again…

   from finger to finger

   to finger to finger …

   the counting seems

   to never end.

If this man is “one of those”,

who mumble and count,

then I am one as well …

one of those

who cannot fathom

  such forgiveness,

  such assurance,

  such Love ...

  for it is all

NEVER-ENDING.

                                      ©2011 anna murdock

For You Today 

Our last word today is how my friend Anna introduced this image…of us…

Jesus says, "Seventy-seven times. It is never-ending...this forgiveness."  May we see no end to forgiveness, no end to God's assurance, and no end to the Great Love that binds us together.  May the One who is without limits send us out to share this 'never-ending' good news with others.  This is the community of faith that we are called to be.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  

 

Title Image:    ©2011 Anna Murdock original work

Images without citation are in public domain.   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

Living in Guilt and Anxiety; the Unsolvable and Unchangeable Presence of Hell

Wednesday, October 12, 2022

Pray like this:  Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.  May your Kingdom come soon.  May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.  And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.  Matthew 6:9-13

Last year I remember seeing a post on a friend’s Facebook page:

No amount of guilt can solve the past,

and no amount of anxiety can change the future.  

It’s not terribly difficult to see the deep truth of that plea to live in the present.  No person can do the time-travel thing that is popular on TV these days – to go back in time and fix the mistakes, so everything will be perfect.  The few moments I spent writing those last sentences cannot be undone.  Time is a one-way door through which we pass, willingly or not.  Grieving over what transpired in that process has theraputic value, but only in the sense that we can learn, and then apply that knowledge for living in the next passage. 

This brings us to the second half of the saying – anxiety over the next passage, the future time of this revolving door we call life.  Anxiety is a wrestling match over the outcome of desired vs. undesired results of the present.  We want good stuff, good feelings, friendly places, and an easier ride.  Past experience tells us that there are precisely eighty-nine bazillion ways that can go wrong.  Truth be told, there are that many ways we are our worst enemy!  The future is unknown to us, and no amount of anxiety will help, it will only lead to stomach ulcers.

I believe that's why forgiveness is the only real solution.  To be forgiven by those to whom you are accountable, and have transgressed (chief and primary among those is God), and then to forgive those who are accountable to you for their brand of transgression.  Without both we can get stuck.  It is a choice we all make, to move forward without fear, or remain stuck in handwringing angst.

Others, those you have transgressed, who, for whatever reason(s), will not offer their forgiveness when asked, is about the only contaminating fly in the ointment of assuaging our guilt.  But that is not, or at least should not be, a reason to hold back receiving the healing forgiveness God offers, when others are too proud, or angry, to forgive.  Getting “stuck” in guilt is a form of self-punishment. 

This thought can be (like any good advice, or process) treated like a get-out-of-jail-free-card, or simply a mechanism to avoid the consequences of poor behavior or intentions.  It is not intended to be that, or simply a convenient crutch to avoid the harder work of forgiving and being forgiven.  The keys to this process of fleeing from the hell on earth of brokenness, are honest self-awareness, and destruction of our pride; the absence of either can derail any relationship. 

For You Today

If we value our relationship with God, we must hold sacred our treatment of each other.  The way Jesus taught us to pray was to ask God for forgiveness in the same way we have already forgiven others…that means the ball of offering forgiveness is always in our court FIRST.  When we refuse to acknowledge and enter the process of offering and seeking forgiveness, we yield to the temptation of the evil one, our enemy…and the contest is forfeited…game over…hell continues to reign.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Forgiveness & Families - Part 1   and   Families & Forgiveness - Part 2

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©