The Hope of an Absolved Past "This I call to mind and therefore I have hope," the prophet Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations 3:21-23. "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." The writer is saying that we can live with hope because even though we find ourselves failing God, letting down our families, and even falling short of our own expectations, God's forgiveness is a renewable resource. It's fresh and available every day, and He's willing to offer us a new start. I was thinking about this while I was watching the movie City Slickers. Did you see that film? It was about three New Yorkers who were approaching their midlife crises, and they decided to take an adventure vacation during which they participated in a cattle drive out West. Phil's life was a wreck. He was in a dead-end job at his father-in-law's grocery store and he was facing a divorce. In one scene he and his buddies were in a tent when Phil broke down and
began crying. "I'm at a dead end!" he sobbed. ''I'm almost forty years old; I've wasted my life!" One of his friends tried to console him. "But now you've got a chance to start over," he said. "Remember when we were kids and we'd be playing ball and the ball would get stuck up in a tree or something? We'd yell, 'Do over!' Look, Phil-your life is a do-over. You've got a clean slate!" But Phil wasn't so sure. "I've got no place to live. I'm going to get wiped out in the divorce because I've committed adultery, so I may never see my kids again. I'm alone!" he said. "How's that slate look now?" As I watched that scene, I thought, How is a guy like Phil ever really going to be helped? And the answer is only through the kind of do-over that he can get from God. After all, God is the world's biggest dispenser of do-overs. He loves granting them to contrite and humble recipients. Individuals like Phil—and you and I—can wish we'd never committed the wrongs we have. We can try to paper them over like they never really happened. We can try to deal with them on our own. But Jesus Christ would tell us, "I can erase them so you can start over. I can forgive you, and I can help you heal and hope again." | 
No comments:
Post a Comment