Patiently Waiting, or Wasting Time?

While waiting for a 2 minute video to download on my mobile phone I decided to patiently wait and give it time.  But when the downloading time was longer than the video itself I decided to stop trying and just delete the message from my phone and maybe later watch it on my computer.  Another time about four years ago when I moved to my new apartment I had to catch a bus to the train station.  The bus stop is only a 2 minute walk from my building and I arrived a few minutes early before the arrival of the next bus.  It was late, yet I waited.

Well it never came and it was time for the next bus, and the temperature was cold and wet.  The second bus was late too (and there was no transportation strike – ‘greve’ en Francais, for if there had been, I could have investigated the times on the internet or possibly walked to the “gare” – station – a 30 minute walk), and I didn’t know what to do.  What if I walked away and the bus arrived, and I would be too far away to run back to it? (That has happened to me too.)  How late would the buses be? Was it normal for this bus line and company to be unusually late?  Was this a sign of what I had to look forward to and expect living in this new city?  I continued to wait.  After 35 minutes in the cold, the bus finally came.  By this time I was no longer waiting alone, but I had waited the longest.

So how do we decide when waiting is profitable and when it is a complete waste of time?  I’m sincerely asking this question because I don’t know.  For instance, if you’re waiting for someone to meet you and they are late, and you don’t hear from them, how long should you wait?  How can you decide whether to wait or to leave?  What if you call them but they don’t respond to your phone calls?  You don’t know if they’ve lost their phone, or if it was stolen, or if the battery died, or if they had an accident and cannot respond.  So how long do you wait, and how do you decide when you’re being patient and when you’re wasting time?  That’s just a few possible scenarios.

In our American culture, or at least my family culture in America, we did not wait too long for things to happen to and for us.  We were taught that idle hands were the devil’s workshop and we needed to be “doing” something at all times.  So we, or at least I sought jobs to make money that I may acquire what I needed and wanted thus not having to wait and depend upon others.  Even God, because being invisible He’s slower than anyone I’ve ever met.  At least concerning me.

One of the things I hate most in life is waste, and wasting time has to be the number one on my list of “things I hate most”.  I like for every moment to be filled with something constructive and productive; I like for every moment to count.  This doesn’t mean (anymore at least) that I have to be “kill-myself busy” but it does mean that I should be able to answer the question “why are you doing that”? with an answer of productivity “because . . .”

In the Bible, in the book of Genesis, Abraham and Sarah had to wait a long time to receive, or to catch the bus they were promised, by God, would come.   He never told them when the bus would arrive, at least not for 24 years He didn’t.  Can you imagine waiting for the bus for 24 years and it never comes, or the one you need to catch never comes, or the one you do catch turns out to be the wrong one and it takes you a route far away (Shrek II) and out of the way of your destination, and you have to spend time and energy (bus tickets and money, and you have to go to the bathroom – this is not America, and you’re hungry because 4+ hours have passed since your last meal, and you’re already late for your rendezvous, and your feet hurt from fatigue from standing on and off the bus because it was packed like sardines so it didn’t matter that you wore your Reebok orthopedic walking shoes.  You now need to invest in standing shoes.)?  Humph.

Anyhoooo, another couple (in the New Testament) had prayed for years for a bus to come their way, and they never received a promise or indication that their prayers would be answered according to their request.  No one answered their telephone calls.  The phone just rang and rang.  It would have been better if an operator had answered and said “this number is not in service.” :-)  So they finally “let it go”.  Then one day in their old age, while they were minding their own business and doing their daily and civic and religious duties, the hubby received an unscheduled visit from a representative of the bus company.  Zachariah was told that a bus line was going to be created through his neighborhood stopping right in front of his house, so he would never have to miss it because the driver would blow the horn upon arriving and would wait for him and/or his wife to descend.  It was a “special services” bus line.  Hmmmm.  His waiting paid off?! You might ask or exclaim, but really, what choice did he have?  He was trapped by his “job” (and lineage assignment) – the priesthood, so he was not able to take a second wife while his wife was living, or a concubine to fill in the “missing children” blanks of their life.  He lived in a perpetual state of waiting, never knowing if his heart’s desire would be fulfilled.

In our “do it yourself” society and “create your own destiny” world, and “your destiny is in your hands” existence, we believe it is ludicrous to wait that long and pray without a sign to an invisible Being Who is not only NOT hearing and listening, but Who might not answer the prayer according to the desire.  We live in a “why wait, when and if you have the resources to make things happen for yourself?” society.  We no longer believe it’s necessary to believe in invisible resources when we’re surrounded by so much man-made amenities.  We don’t really need God like that anymore, do we?  Even those of us in Christendom have problems believing and waiting on God.  I should know.  That’s why I can write this article with sincerity.

So what do you/we do?  I don’t know.  I cannot tell anyone what to do for his/her life because I don’t know what your tomorrow holds.  I don’t know what my own tomorrow holds. :-)  I don’t know God’s purpose for creating you and what He will, and will not allow to happen in, with, to and for you.  I am not one of those to make blanket statements using Bible verses to make people believe God will or will not do certain things for them, without seeing the bigger picture concerning His purpose for their lives.  I’ve done that for years and it has not worked for me.  Some of us get to choose and some of us don’t.   I’m having my own challenges dealing with learning my own purpose for being on this earth, and thus why I have to be so different from everyone else.

If you’re a true believer in Jesus Christ then you have to do what your beliefs in Christ will govern you to do according to His written and revealed will.  If you’re not a believer in Christ - and what I mean by ‘believer’ is: one who not only has asked Jesus to come into his/her heart as Savior, but who is everyday surrendering themselves to God’s will and choices for his/her life, allowing the Lord to be the governor even against one’s own desires and drives.  (It is not easy if you are one full of dreams like I have been.)  So if this description does not fit you - then you can knock yourself out doing your life the way you want.  Nevertheless, there are consequences on both sides of the fence.

The Christian life is simple and not complicated, but it is not easy because we have to daily choose Someone else’s will for our lives over our own will.  When we are finally consumed by His love and sacrifice for us, and we agree with Him – saying what He says and learning to think as He thinks, then choosing His will won’t be hard at all (for we will be one with Him in our heart), and waiting won’t be, or won’t feel like a waste of time.  So how do we know if we’re patiently waiting or if we’re wasting time? 

Well, unless we have a schedule to guide us, or some other form of specific communication, all we can do is wait and see.  When you’ve done all you can do to “rectify” the situation, investigate and educate yourself; when you’ve gone as far as your resources will allow you to go, all you are left with is waiting.  In Abraham and Sarah’s day, and Zachariah and Elizabeth’s time, when it came to wanting to have children, they did not have clinics to help them.  (And they had the financial resources to cover all the bases if those clinics had existed.)  Abraham’s culture allowed him to have multiple wives and concubines and maids to have children, but doing so did not fulfill the promise God gave him and his wife.  God told him that his own wife, Sarah by name, would have his promised child.  So all he could do was wait for the right bus to come and take them to their destination, no matter how long he would have to wait.
 

If you have a promise from a credible source, then your waiting won’t be in vain, and it won’t be a waste of time if you use it constructively.  Even if they’re a little bit late, either they will eventually show up, or they will “contact” you, somehow, some way.  Waiting is only a waste of time if you come away from it having learned nothing new that you can use for living.  “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.  They shall mount up with wings like eagles.  They shall run and not be weary.  They shall walk and not faint.”  Isaiah 40:31 [NKJV]

Peace.     

Hello? We've Been Disconnected.

This is what happens often in our world of cell phones – we are having a great conversation whether walking, riding, or sitting still and then suddenly there’s nothing.  We no longer “feel” the openness of the phone line and say “hello” several times.  Sometimes we’ve just passed through a blank spot in the air waves, and the reception will quickly return, other times the battery may run out, and sometimes we inadvertently press the cut off button with our cheek or chin.  And In many cases we just run out of phone units and have to recharge by purchasing more time.

The beauty of it is you know where the person is and they know where you are.  Maybe you’re even traveling towards one another for a rendezvous.  Neither of you are “lost” even though the connection has been temporarily lost through technical difficulties.  This reminds me of another moment in human history where the connection was lost:  The Garden of Eden.

God and Adam were one, and even when Eve was brought forth, they still were all spiritually and intimately connected.  God knew everything about them, their thoughts and imaginations, their whereabouts in the garden at all times.  Because the Bible doesn’t give us more details of their time in the Garden it appears to us that they disobeyed God only a few hours or days after Eve was created.  But we do know that before they sinned God was not controlled or limited by time, even though He created the 24 hour period we call “night and day”.

Adam had lived in and with God alone longer than he did with Eve, so it stands to reason that he had to have had some quality time with her, his wife, enough so that when she disobeyed God and offered him the forbidden fruit, he was compelled to obey her over His Creator and Father.  He and she had such a pure and strong intimate connection, they were knit together and could see and touch and experience one another in such a way that they never could or would or did with God, that they were magnetized, and he could not see being apart from her.

So when they ate of the fruit, the line between them and God went dead.  They were disconnected.  Not lost in the sense that they could not be physically located, for God always knew where they were, but there was now death between them and God.  The line of life was severed and God said “Adam, where are you?”  This is the equivalent of our “hello, heeeelllllooooo?” when we can no longer hear the other person on the other side.  You can even “feel” within the phone the disconnectedness even if there is no click or fuzzy feedback noise.

This problem of communication is prevalent throughout the earth in every type of relationship.  We seem to meet people and hit it off well after we find that “common ground”, but then something happens along the way – words spoken or unspoken, deeds done or not performed, strange facial expressions and unexplained actions may at times cause the line to go dead.  Or we hit a blank spot and we don’t know why or how to respond, or how long we should wait before cutting off the phone ourselves since we don’t know how long it will last.  We don’t know that the other person’s phone battery died, or they dropped their phone, or it was stolen, or they forgot to turn it on at all that day, etc.  So many reasons as to why the line of communication has been interrupted, but what (and Who) is inside us will determine how we will respond or react to the dead line.  I’m learning, and some days are better than others however, that if I will give others the same reasons and excuses that I give to myself, before jumping to conclusions, new problems will not be created. 

The Bible says that “no temptation has taken us except what is common to man.”  In the context of this article I’m receiving from the Lord that everyone who has a cell phone is subject to the same challenges, rules, and regulations of having and using a cell phone.  If it has happened to you, whatever “it” is, it has also happened to others, but we all can learn from each others’ experiences and of course, the “powers that be” and even everyday normal people will come up with another solution to meet the need of everyone experiencing the same things.  Whew!!

How do you respond and react to “dead lines” of communication?  How do I respond or react to interruptions in communication or delayed responses?  How did God respond?  In Genesis we see that God searched for Adam and when He “found” him, and confronted what he had done, even though He had to evict him and his wife from the garden, He continued manifesting in the earth His plan to restore the lines of intimate communion with humans.  There are several scripture verses I can safely lift out of their contexts and not lose their meanings to reveal how God feels about restoring the lines of communication and intimacy between us and Himself, and in our human relationships too. 

One of the first ones is found in Matthew’s gospel 5:23 & 24.  Jesus teaches “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and you there remember that your brother has any [grievance] against you, leave your gift at the altar and go.  First make peace with your brother, and then come back and present your gift.” [Amplified Bible]  This is in cases where you know the other person is holding something against you.  Sometimes communication stops because people get busy and fall out of touch.  When this happens, the level of intimacy of those relationships (depending on the type of relationship, and also the reasons) may decline in intensity.  For instance, if a man or woman you are dating becomes interested in someone else, he or she may distance himself/herself from you in order to sever the line with you.  Unless he or she comes right out and tells you that this is the case, you could be left feeling the ever increasing coldness between you and assume you’ve done something wrong.

God however doesn’t desire to move away from us.  He longs after us.  His heart and soul desires us in every way.  He is not content with blank spots in the air waves, temporary cut-offs, and delayed responses.  He shows us in His Word how to keep the line connected and open with Him unto ever increasing levels of intimacy with Him.  But we have to go into another garden to get our new “mobile phone” and calling plan. J  We must meet Him in Gethsemane and walk with Him to Calvary (which one gospel writer records to be a garden also) where we surrender our will back to God “Garden of Eden” style, and then we are crucified with Christ so we can be resurrected with, and in Him.

 In Gethsemane Peter and Judas (and all the disciples) got disconnected from the Lord.  The difference between Peter and Judas is that Judas gave up trying and not only hung up the phone, but cut off his service.  Peter on the other hand kept his phone with him just in case. . .  “It might ring again.  He might call me again and I can apologize; He might give me another chance, for after all, He knew me better than I knew myself, and He even warned me in advance of what I was going to do.  I just over estimated the strength of my commitment to Him.  I won’t discard my ‘phone’ neither cancel my phone plan.  Just leave it open, for anything is possible.”  Then one day women came telling him “The Lord is alive!! And He asked for you specifically Peter!  He said to meet Him in Galilee.”

“Wow!!  He rang my phone again.  The lines are open again.  We can communicate, talk, clear the air, start over again, get to know each other better, respect.”  Hmmm.  “Hello”?

Peace.

Lover, Lord and King

Jesus is my Lover, the Lover of My soul.  The One Who loves Me best and loves me most.  He is the standard of a lover for Me.

Jesus is my Lord – the Governor of My life and soul.  He puts everything in order like an agent, manager, accountant, secretary – He pays attention to the details of My everyday life – internally and externally.

Jesus is my King – the One Who rules over Me.  “His banner over me is love” and my enemies see this banner and know under Whose regime I live.  Not only am I subjected (a subject) and submitted (a servant) to and unto Him, I am protected by Him and His soldiers – the prayers of my brothers and sisters in Christ, and the ministering spirits called “angels”.

His Word and His Spirit also stand guard over Me, and from within me, surrounding Me as with a shield.  I am married to this King and I desire to more and more learn what it is like to live under His Lordship, and to be engulfed by Him as My Lover.

I am Hephzibah.  (Isaiah 62:4-6)

Peace.

The Paper Guide :-)

I’ve noticed for a few weeks now that the paper in my printer wants to argue with the printer on its way out as they’re supposed to be working together on printing jobs.  A few times the discourse was so bad that the paper got jammed and all production stopped.  Since then I’ve run through a couple of new ink cartridges in record time and there still is ink on the corners of the paper where it should not be.  The last straw for me today was the words getting cut off the page.  Well this is just unacceptable and defeats the purpose of printing anything in the first place.  So I studied the page to determine how to approach the printer concerning this problem.  Something inside the printer had shifted with continuous use of this wonderful tool and I needed to find out what and where it was, and if it was something I could fix, or not.

 

I decided to deal with the most simplest of plastic parts on the machine, first – the paper guide.  I figured since the paper was arguing with the printer about its position, then maybe the paper guide was the key to getting him (paper – “le papier” is male in French) back on track.  But I noticed that even though I made the adjustment and the arguing stopped that two problems still remained – the ink on the corner and the date getting cut off the upper right hand corner.  So I decided to move the paper guide again to hopefully rectify all three problems.  And guess what?  I saw improvement.

Another issue was the plastic piece which supports the paper in an upright position, so as it is pulled/drawn down towards ink and rollers, the paper remains straight and not bent over.  Sometimes, no most of the time it’s the simple things in life that we either take for granted, or choose to ignore which make all the difference in the world to our current success or failure, problems and solutions.  There’s a verse in the scriptures which says “it is the small foxes that spoil the vine”, and another one says “don’t despise the day of small beginnings.”  We can learn so much from small things – “go to the ant” one Proverb says, and learn from its faithfulness and hard working nature.

Many times we say “don’t sweat the small stuff,” and don’t make mountains out of mole hills, and both adages have their purpose and place in and for our lives for a more tranquil experience.  But there does come a time when we need to investigate the small things and when ignoring a mole or lump on one’s body, for example, can indeed become a mountain that cannot be ignored.  For mountains don’t need our help to exist, they can appear all by themselves.  So let’s not ignore the paper guides of our lives, because everything is not always going to be black and white. J   Have a Happy New Year!!

Peace.

Take the Roof Off - The Ceiling Is In The Way

“And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house.  Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door.  And He preached the word to them.  Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men.  And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was.  So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.  He said to the paralytic, ‘I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.’” Mark 2:1-4, 10b-11. [New King James Bible]

Depending on where you’re standing, you will see either a roof or a ceiling.  Depending on where Jesus is standing, you will see an opportunity or a hindrance.  Roofs/ceilings are usually positive things providing coverage and protection for humans and things and property, etc.  In this story the roof/ceiling was doing its job for those inside the house had no problem with it.  Jesus was inside the house with them “under” the ceiling/roof, and He had no problem with it either.  The owner of the house, Peter, had no problem with the roof.  When the four men arrived carrying their paralyzed friend on a normal and spacious day, all would have been well.  But on this day they were faced with too many obstacles i.e. people who were not giving up their space for charity in any way to get their space in the place.  “Sorry chaps.  You should have come earlier, and then you would have gotten a seat.”  These guys would not be denied their much needed audience with Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the Healer, the “Raiser-Upper-from-the-dead” Guy.  To the roof!  On Dancer, on Prancer, on Blitzen, Comet, and Cupid . . . Oh no, there is no chimney.  Sometimes it is necessary to think outside-of-the-box to get what you need.  “Let’s create a sky-light for this house.  I hear they’re very popular, especially so windowless rooms can receive light.”

Who we are decides what we can do.  It is not and should not be the other way around.  What I do should not define who I am, for if I change what I do, or if life’s circumstances alter what I’m able to do, then what do I become?  At the end of the day, who am I?  Jesus was always (and always will be) the Son of Almighty God, but many people on their way to learning His identity would define Him by what He did, and said.  This is why the Pharisees had a problem with Him telling this man his sins were forgiven, for since only God could forgive men’s (and women’s) sins, who was Jesus claiming to be?  God?  “Certainly not”! J  (These of course were their surmisings.)

If we are habitually lying the world labels us as “liars”.  But what and who are we if we live a life of telling the truth?  Prudes?  Puritans?  If we kill and murder adults and people on two feet we are murderers.  But if we fight to save those not yet born we are extremists?  Why are positive actions, acts and life-styles given negative labels and connotations just because people make a passionate stand?

When you know who you really are, then you will and can do what you are created to do.  What I do is defined by who I am and who I am is defined by Whose I am.  When I know Whose I am, then I can accept all the positives He has for me.  When I know the true character of the One Whose I am, then I am liberated from what and who my earthly world has shaped me to be and to become, so I may become and be who and what I was created to be.

When Jesus is in the house, no roof or ceiling can keep me from expanding, growing or getting to Him.  No limited world views or culture mores, or religious or legalistic rules and rituals can prevent me from becoming all He has destined me to become, neither from receiving from Him all He plans and desires to give me.  All ceilings have to be removed, all roofs have to be blown off!  Especially those created inside my own mind. :-)

There once was a happy little grasshopper that was doing what grasshoppers do:  hopping along in the green grass minding his own business.  When along came a boy with a box wanting to catch a . . . hmmm grasshopper for show-and-tell in school.  Much to the chagrin of the grasshopper the boy captured him in his transparent prison with a happy grin.  But the grasshopper could not continue along his merry way.  He was trapped.  Days passed before and after show-and-tell and the grasshopper continued hopping inside the box when one day the boy’s father convinced him to set the grasshopper free.  The boy took the grasshopper outside into the yard and removed the top, but the grasshopper just continued hopping inside the box.  He could not understand why the grasshopper would not hop out of the box, but it was because the top of the box had conditioned the grasshopper to the height of the box, for it had become its new ceiling.  Life before the box was one without limitations.  Life in the box changed its perspective making its world smaller than before.

This is what happened to humans in the Garden of Eden – before Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, they lived a life without limitations except for the fruit being off limits to them.  In God there are no limitations for us to becoming all He has created us to be.  We put the limitations upon ourselves when we take our focus off of Him and put our attention upon ourselves and each other.  We begin to take on the likeness of the one or ones we gaze at and think on the most.  Therefore, since God is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient anything or anyone other than Him is a “less than” meaning they have a ceiling on them. J

What should we do if we find ourselves in a limiting situation?  Well I will answer that question with another story.  You can find this one in the Old Testament book of Exodus 13, specifically for this article are verses 31-33.  This is such a good read, “But the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.’  And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, ‘The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.  There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”  [New King James Bible] Emphases in italics are theirs, not mine.  (Green font is my idea, for special effects.) J This is important to know for it helps us to understand what they believed about themselves.

The 10 spies had assumed to know how the natives of the land saw them without having yet encountered them.  They had a “navel” view of themselves.  Also, they did not know how powerful they were because they were looking at the giants they could see, forgetting the God Who had delivered them from Pharaoh and his army, which by the way all drowned in the Red Sea, right before their eyes.  There’s nothing wrong with being a grasshopper if you are indeed a grasshopper, because God created them too for a purpose.  The problem is when we take on a grasshopper mentality when we ourselves are giants, and the problem is when we don’t know that the sky is indeed the limit and we instead continue jumping up and down inside a box that either someone else has built around us, or captured us with either mentally, emotionally, financially, spiritually, or any other –ally.  But to every problem there is a solution whether or not we know yet what (or WHO) it is.  However the answer to all is to focus on Jesus the Christ for He knows just what we need to remove all ceilings and limitations no matter where we find ourselves (inside the box with a fox), or wherever He may be, whether inside the (our) house or outside of the house (or with Three Bears and Goldilocks).  All things are possible with Him.  So go ahead, let Him take the roof off of your circumstances and life, then jump as high, and as far as you can go.

Peace.  

Forgiveness

Exactly what is it and how do you know you have it (or have received it) and are extending it to others?  Forgiveness is the releasing of an infraction or offense committed against us – the person.  Forgiving the person for what they have done to hurt, demean, or destroy us.  It doesn’t mean we forget because it’s not possible to forget the death of a loved one caused by another, or a rape, or when one is paying a debt owed by another which takes much time to complete.  It is ever before you.  But to forgive the person means you release yourself from being attached to them in a prison of the negative incident.  They may still have to pay consequences – or not.  They may never turn around and apologize or express remorse for injuring and turning your life upside down, especially if they themselves too have died or are mentally disabled, or just evil.

Forgiveness is more for the forgiver than for the forGIVEE. J  The forgiven.  If we find it difficult to forgive others more than likely we find it difficult to extend forgiveness to ourselves and to accept and receive forgiveness from others.  From God.  We cannot believe that God or others have truly forgiven us, and we apply that same mentality against others when they have offended us.

Whether we realize it or not, we keep ourselves in a perpetual state of trying to pay back or repay someone because of the wrong we’ve done, even if it’s just psychologically or at the subconscious level.  And because we have this expectation of ourselves, we believe others have it of us as well, and thus it is how we roll:  We carry inside of ourselves an expectation of others to eventually and somehow make restitution for the pain they’ve caused, even though we may have said verbally “I forgive you”.  We expect the gods, the environment to turn on this person, not desiring for them to have the better life which we ourselves have been denied because of their choices against us.

We can only forgive to the extent that we have experienced forgiveness as our reality.  When forgiveness has become my truth (and the truth, once it is known, believed and received can and will set me free) then I can give it to others, for now I have something to talk about, something to give.  We can only give what we have, and we can only have what we’ve received, and we can only receive what we’ve been given.  FORgiven. J

Jesus said “he who forgives much is one who has received a lot of forgiveness, and he who forgives little is someone who has not received a lot of forgiveness.”  So it seems in order to be qualified for a lot of forgiveness you must be one who lives on the edge in some way.  This doesn’t mean leading a fast and dangerous life-style on the physical side, but it can mean you are one who is not always careful about what you say about others, what you do with, for or against others.  You just go and come in and through lives like tsunami-Katrina winds, or a bull in a china shop.  You may smile coming and everyone is glad to see you, but sooner than later they realize they wished you had never entered their lives at all. 

Eventually, when your tongue, feet, hands, and habits catch up with you and you look behind to see what a wrecking crew your life has been in the lives of others, if you have a heart, you will want to apologize and ask for forgiveness.  A lot of forgiveness. J  You will also want to first forgive yourself – release yourself from the prison of what you cannot change, but do what you can to make things better for those you’ve hurt (if this is possible) and for those you will meet in the future.

Many of us who have been raised in a tight Christian box were monitored ever so closely that we were not allowed to commit outward acts of sin without quick and harsh consequences.  So because we developed a habit of “not sinning” – not hurting others but pleasing everyone we met – we did not have the need for forgiveness.  Thus we for years did not develop our forgiveness muscles, and when we did commit wrong, we were the first to beat ourselves down to a pulp.  Why?  Because we did not know how to forgive, not even ourselves.  In order to receive forgiveness one must first not only do something wrong, but he/she must know that they’ve committed a wrong.

Without this knowledge people continue hurting and destroying others without a conscience.  However, many know right from wrong, but their consciences are seared to the point where they no longer have any mental or emotional feelings, and thus they can hurt and destroy without a fore- or second thought.  In Paul’s first letter to Timothy he wrote, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, . . .”  I Timothy 4:1&2. [Emphasis mine.]  If you’ve ever burned yourself while ironing you are familiar with the sizzling sound of flesh being fried, not to mention the hot burning pain.  But then the injured place goes through a time of numbness as it heals itself, and if healing occurs in a healthy way, the feeling will return in good time.  But if not, one could say that spot has been cauterized, and it’s as though it has been separated from the rest of the body where feeling remains.

This woman in the midst of men handling Jesus’ feet with perfume, tears and hair was an expert at making men feel good.  Perhaps some of the men in the room were jealous to see her giving to Jesus what they felt belonged to them?  “She never kissed my feet when . . .”  “Humph, that’s the perfume she bought with the cash I paid her and she pours it on His feet?!  The nerve of that . . .”  Hmmm “What have you done for me lately?”  14 verses of the seventh chapter of Luke’s gospel are devoted to this spectacle and the reactions of the witnesses:  Jesus forgiving the gross, horrible, social sins of a woman (of all people for Him to forgive.  Well “they” need it the most, don’t we?  Hmmm).

She breaks a year’s worth of wages from giving her body away to ungrateful men who would not offer her a retirement plan or dental insurance, and they get upset because . . .  But Jesus said to them about themselves, and I summarize – “when I came into your house you didn’t give me any water so I could wash My own feet, you did not greet me at the door with a bisous bisous, and you did not anoint my head with perfumed oil.  But this woman in YOUR house Mr. Simon the Pharisee (Mr. Religious Person, Mr. Holier-than-thou, Mr. Pastor, Mr. Deacon, etc.) has washed My feet with her tears (she put her face and lips on My dirty feet), and wiped them with her own hair (not a wig, but her real hair), and she anointed My feet with fragrant oil.  And by the way, since you disapprove of her so much, how did she get in here, your house Simon, in the first place?  Do you know her Simon?”  And now I quote, “Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.  But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.  Then He said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’”  Luke 7:36-50

The Worst Sinners make the best lovers when they truly are transformed by the Lord of love.  Now I’m not saying to go out and live the worst life you can so Jesus can forgive you of 100,000 sins.  Not at all, for you would destroy your life and others for nothing, if you’re reading this message (and if you’re not). J  The point is first of all, we all need forgiveness because we are born in sin after Adam.  Therefore we need to learn and understand what this means and the depth of God’s sacrifice for us on the cross.  When we truly meet this truth and embrace it, and allow it to consume us, we will realize that we have been forgiven much.  John 8:31-32.

However, God has already made provision for our 100,000+ sins (per person, per day, week, month, year, etc.) and He is willing to take the chance on letting us sin again and again until we “get it” and get it good – His love and forgiveness.  And when we finally get it, like this woman, not only will we lavish it back onto Jesus, but we will be able to truly give it to one another.  Real forgiveness cost Jesus His life and soul on the cross and an eternity in hell (oh yes, go find out what that means.  It will blow your unforgiving mind.) so He well knows how difficult it is to be forgiving – to live a life as the forgiven and the forgiving forgiver.  Thus He also knows how important and powerful it is, and that is why He paid the ultimate price to first forgive us of our sins before we were ever born, and before we would ever hear about Him and decide “yes” or “no” to this “Jesus Christ” as Savior and Lord of our lives, and then secondly empower and command us to extend forgiveness to one another.

I did not know the depth of my forgiveness for others until I saw how shallow the pool of forgiveness I was swimming in for, and towards myself.  I’ve been told that it’s best to learn how to swim at the deep end of the pool for after all, one can still drown in just two inches of water and sustain a hefty bump on the head.  Now where's the fun in that?  So, let’s jump in.

Peace.