There is a certain rule of the game which cannot be broken by mankind. And if broken, men simply sink further and further into soft mud. Though he fights with all his will and might, he sinks further. The picture I see then is a hand that reaches down from someone standing on solid ground. The hand reaches all the way to where the man is. The man stretches his hands up and where the two hands connect, the man is pulled up, away from the mud slide.
You know, funny this scene reminds me of what mankind really really sucks at? I think most of the time, we think we're not that super, not that great, and really not that perfect. But the ego inside of us always gets the better of us. We think just because we have earned a certain position in an institution, at the workplace, in the family, in the church - we could jolly well be the 'expert'. We think that just because we have reached a certain 'age of maturity' or should I say 'a cetain semblence of wisdom' (aka saggin skin, white hair, wrinkles, aches, pot belly etc), we have arrived.
Fact is none of can save ourselves from the soft mudslide of this thing call SIN. This is an unsaid game of life that everyone, rich, poor, old, young, cute or naughty, sweet or sexy are thrown into.
In short, SIN causes all mankind to be LESS THAN PERFECT of what heaven states as perfect.
Envy, jealousy, murder, lust, revenge, unforgiveness...
Human beings are dusty beings. We pick up all sorts of 'dirt' on the way. Some are splashed on us as we walk in this journey of life; we are NOT the inititor, it just 'happens' to us. The other 'dirt' we pick it up along the way; we happily TOOK it and stuff it into our hearts & minds.
one of such is the SIN of unforgiveness.
From something as trivial as the fight for one's rights in daily conversations, power struggles at home, among colleagues; petty strifes with silblings, friends; broken relationships, homes, marriages and the list goes on. Funny how easily it is to take offence at someone at the slightess displeasure, but ignore how quick we are to casue hurt to others with our words. The starting point is almost always " I am more right than he is". When we cast such a sentence on others in our heart, we have unconsciously pick up the dirt.
Over the course of life, i have realised that "Time will heal" is nothing but a myth. Time may
cause some things to be forgotten, but never forgiven. It is like pasting a skin-colour plaster on over a deep wound, but the wound inside may be untreated and left to fester.
For an unforgiven heart, bitterness is all that is left. Time just makes it worse. I had my fair share of dirt when i picked up an awful lot of it some years back. There was nothing worse that waking up in the morning and having my head filled with nothing but questions after questions, justifications after justifications, pain and more pain. It took a long while for me to finally turn to Jesus and open my hands as I feebly attempted to give it all to him.
A year or two has passed. I realised that although situations look normal enough. I never forgot anything in that incident. I never fully forgave. The fact is I could not.
This year's Christmas. I was sharply reminded of the King that is to be born. The merriment of songs and dances, presents and food does not tell us the reason why we are celebrating.
I realised that we are celebrating a man who came to do one thing. A real life story was told of this certain man in cambodia. 13 of Reaksa Himm's immediate family including his family were brutally executed by Cambodia's Khmer Rouge. Severely wounded, Reaksa was hidden by the bodies of his family. He struggles free, and ultimately made his way to canada. He found faith in Christ but for years wrestle with bitterness, hatred and a desire for vengence. At the turn of events he discovered what it truly means to forgive. He tracked down his killers one by one, embraced them, gave them a friendship scarf, and presented each of them with a Bble...
Taken from: "After the heavy rain" - SOKREAKSA S HIMM - Author of Tears of my soul.
The essence of why we are celebrating is that that only JESUS can FORGIVE.
Only a PERFECT being like him has the POWER and AUTHORITY to FORGIVE. Hence it is only through JESUS that we can EXPERIENCE his GRACE of FORGIVENESS.
Let us celebrate this jolly season not just with a list of names we can give gifts to but also who we can forgive. FORGIVESNESS begins with Jesus.
0 comments:
Post a Comment