Today Dan Sneed spoke in our church on forgiveness and reconciliation. An excellent speaker with an excellent message. He shared some stories of a Christian leadership conference in Iraq last August (the first since 325 A.D.!), where he also spoke about forgiveness. A heavy topic in a country that is torn apart by dictatorship and tribal wars, where revenge and strike-back is the usual language of communication. Incredible stories of how God broke through and set people free. The core of Dan’s message is that when you forgive, you set a captive free – only to find out that you are that captive! The trouble with forgiveness is that it seems unfair – which in fact is true. A dad who’s kid has been murdered, has every right to hold the murderer accountable, to have justice done to him; that is fair! He does not deserve to be forgiven. A recent example is the Marc Dutroux case in Belgium, who raped and murdered several young girls. The surviving victims did not want to forgive him or his ex-wife. I think we all completely understand, and I will be the last to throw stones at them. But at the same time: this unforgiveness can keep them emprisoned for the rest of their lives.
I recently read Philip Yancey’s book ‘What’s so amazing about grace?’, which deals with the same subject. Yancey also tells a lot of stories. Maybe because grace cannot be captured in a ‘doctrine’? Maybe because it is so counter-intuitive that only a story can expose the meaning?
I have been thinking about ‘grace’ for a while, and I share Yancey’s view that grace (impersonated in Jesus Christ) is the key factor that differentiates christianity from other religions: the forgiving love of God for men made Him come down and save us, even while we did not deserve it; and that many christians, including me, miss the point…
GRACE (U2)
Grace
She takes the blame
She covers the shame
Removes the stain
It could be her name
Grace
It’s a name for a girl
It’s also a thought that
Changed the world
And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness
In everything
Grace
She’s got the walk
Not on a wrapper on chalk
She’s got the time to talk
She travels outside
Of karma, karma
She travels outside
Of karma
When she goes to work
You can hear the strings
Grace finds beauty
In everything
Grace
She carries a world on her hips
No champagne flute for her lips
No twirls or skips
Between her fingertips
She carries a pearl
In perfect condition
What once was hers
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stains
Because grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things
Grace finds beauty
In everything
Grace finds goodness
In everything