The Only Antidote for Revenge

Are you mad at someone right now? Have you ever been?

Alright, it’s a guaranteed “yes” for the second question; but it’s very possibly a “yes” for the first question, too.

They should pay for what they did. Right? Face it, we just tend to feel that way in some fashion – at least for a moment or two – when something happens that makes us upset.

But, what does that really gain for you, if the other person suffers? Nothing.

It doesn’t change the hurt that you feel. It doesn’t change the lack of peace from what happened.

So, what can change that?

Photo credit: Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune

Longtime Chicago sports national anthem singer Wayne Messmer was shot in the neck in April 1994.

Read this article for the full story. Here’s an excerpt:

Around 1:50 a.m. after a Blackhawks victory that April night, Messmer walked the 1 1/2 blocks to his car after leaving Hawkeye’s Bar and Grill at 1458 W. Taylor St. When Messmer attempted to drive away, two men approached the vehicle and one, a 15-year-old, shot him in the neck from point-blank range with a 9 mm pistol.

Somehow, Messmer drove back to the bar where he stumbled out of the car and into an ambulance that rushed him to Cook County Hospital. The “Save The Children Foundation” tie they used to stop the bleeding from Messmer’s neck until they reached the hospital now hangs in a frame on a wall at his home. After 10 hours of surgery and 2 1/2 days asleep, Messmer woke up feeling like the luckiest man in the city. One doctor later told Messmer he had no medical explanation why he survived, and with his voice intact.

“When you get that close to death, you get past why did it happen and ask why did I get better? What am I going to do with this gift?” said Messmer, who also still has the leather Blackhawks jacket with a bullet hole in the collar. “It was nothing short of miraculous. So I can’t possibly have a day I’m not totally grateful.”

With that spirit of gratefulness, Messmer visited the men who were responsible for his injuries and personally forgave them. This is what he had to say about that experience:

“I discovered that the only antidote for revenge is forgiveness.”

Amen. Thank you for the inspiration, sir.

Have a great day.

The Way

All my days are secure in Your promise, never standing alone. You’re the truth, You’re the life, You’re my future. Jesus, You made a way. I’m alive in the love that You give me, free to dance once again. You will lead me from glory to glory. Jesus, You made a way.

You are the way. Lost and dead but Your love came to find me. Jesus, You are the way.

My new favorite song. It just screams FREEDOM and FORGIVENESS and HOPE and being MADE NEW and everything good that comes from putting your life in God’s hands. Get out your dancing shoes and crank this one up.

Forgive More

Reading a Facebook post of a friend of mine has this topic on my mind this morning. It’s about forgiving others.

Friends, forgiveness isn’t something that’s optional…it’s required of us. We’re not given the right to hold a grudge, or hold back forgiveness toward others.

After all no one walking this Earth is perfect, but thankfully we are forgiven when we simply ask for it. And so, we should readily offer the same for others.

Forgive more. Condemn less.

Forgiveness

‘It’ll clear the bitterness away, it can even set a prisoner free. There is no end to what its power can do. So let it go and be amazed by what you see through eyes of grace. The prisoner that it really frees is you. Forgiveness.’
-Matthew West

Seriously, some of the best song lyrics ever written. These words are so, so true. The power of forgiveness is incredible.

It’s hard to forgive sometimes. As people we seem to be programmed with this ‘me’ mentality and the thought of pardoning the flaws and errors of other people is not necessarily a natural one. After all, how could they do that to you? Right?

Well maybe but not if you look at things differently, and make that choice to let it go. You’ll be giving the other person the gift of being freed from your anger or bitterness. But just like the words above say, the prisoner that it really frees is you.

That chip on your shoulder that’s been getting bigger and bigger, the resentment that keeps you from experiencing joy, the time wasted being upset with people…all of that ends up hurting you more than anything.

So choose forgiveness today. Chances are there is someone you need to forgive right now. Go ahead, you can do it. Your life will be better for it, without a doubt.

Have a good day.

Stacey Jackson: A Story of Forgiveness

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/cowboys/2012/12/10/dallas-cowboys-josh-brent-jerry-brown-memorial/1759951/

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told KRLD-FM Tuesday morning that Jerry Brown’s mother, Stacey Jackson, has asked Josh Brent to ride with her to the memorial service for her son…two days after he wrecked his car, killing his teammate and friend Jerry Brown, and one day after being released on $500,000 bond after being charged with intoxication manslaughter…

Click the image to play the CNN interview with Stacey Jackson.

“I was upset, but I realized that our youth today are young and stupid, and we were all once that age, and we’ve all done things we’re not proud of,” Jackson said on Monday’s Piers Morgan Tonight on CNN.

“I know Josh Brent, and he’s been part of our family since Jerry went to the University of Illinois. All I can do is to pray for him and his family. I know he is hurting just as much as we are, because (he) and Jerry were like brothers.”

I wanted to share this so that anyone who’s holding a grudge against someone right now might read it and see that whatever it is, you can forgive that person.

If this woman can welcome the man charged with causing her son’s death into her vehicle for her son’s funeral service and pray for him in her darkest hour, you can cancel the debt you feel someone owes you too.

Forgive.

It can seem really hard to do this sometimes, but you can do it. It sets the other person free but perhaps more importantly, it sets YOU free. So, go find that person and talk with him or her. Make that phone call. Send that email. However you choose to do it…do it.

We’re getting ready to celebrate the birth of someone who was sent here to die for our sins so that we could be forgiven and made new. To me, there’s no better time than now to show that same kind of forgiveness toward others in our lives. I hope this story inspires you to do that.