I had an unusual thing happen today. A woman came to me and asked me to forgive her because she had had some not so nice thoughts about me in the past. She told me that when she first met me she thought I was cold and uncaring, but had since came to know that that was not the case...
I was baffled...I did not know that she thought that about me. She could have gone on and never told me. But she was compelled to ask my forgiveness.
In the course of a day I hear a lot of stories. I ask a lot of questions. I might ask, "Why were you incarcerated? " Typically I get answers ranging from, "the judge said I did not pay my child support" to "well...some how the cops got called..." Rarely, if ever is my questioned answered with, "I did wrong." The story always includes what everyone else has done. We take much effort to explain and deflect our sin. And since we do not even admit when we are wrong, how is it that we would ever seek forgiveness?
We seldom go to each other to ask forgiveness even for blatant acts done against each other. What if we were so mindful of our thoughts and actions that we even asked forgiveness for the "unknown" sins? Oh the healing that might take place, and the strength we would regain in the Church if we took our sin seriously...
While I did not know the bad thoughts the woman had about me, I got the drift that I was not her favorite person. But now I know more about her, I know that she is my sister in Christ. With out that exchange of forgiveness we would have both went on with our lives and probably forgotten each others names. But now I believe that the body of Christ as a whole is a little bit stronger, and when our paths cross again we will fellowship in a way that we would not have otherwise.
Pondering....
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