Forgiveness

People will forgive everything except the truth - A. G. Matos

Humility evades the average human being, me included. Instead, pride easily finds comfortable lodgings in our hearts and distorts our perceptions of reality.

We have more than enough influences today that cultivate pride and nourish it. In our music and movies, lyrical braggadocio and antisocial personas get away with dark evil deeds and statements by the sheer force of bravado and size of balls. It's hard to miss, especially in today's rap, as the rapper insults hearers and praises himself/ herself. You know what it is. Movies appeal to us to take sides with the perpetrator of all sorts of immoral madness simply because they are the star.

I'm not appealing to people to have low self-esteem. In fact I am the first to vouch for the fact that we are beautifully and wonderfully made. Unfortunately we have not always lived and acted beautifully and wonderfully. The point is, pride comes before a fall, and that fall is usually great indeed. Below are facts that pride obscures from sight; facts whose humble recognition are the beginnings of the way of life.

1. No matter how great we think we are, we all have failings and shortcomings whether intended or unintended.
2. Because of out shortcomings, we need forgiveness from one another and from God.
3. None of us deserve to be forgiven our wrongdoing, but if our love for one another can overlook this, then all of us can forgive each other, because each of us know we have done things for which forgiveness is the only way out.
4. Most importantly, GOD loved us enough to send His only begotten Son to die for us while we were still sinners, and Jesus Christ died so that His blood was the purchase of our lives, which by our sins we have proved not to be deserving of (for the wages of sin is death). Having been thus forgiven, what can we not forgive? And how can we reject GOD's forgiveness for free?

This is the true human condition which pride obstructs from view. If we reject the truth let our pride puff us bigger than forgiveness (only in the realm of strong delusion!) then we rightly deserve and get the just punishment for our wrongdoing - death.

"...But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ his Son."