Students have arrived for the summer! With all the planning for summer project I have not been very diligent in updating my blog, but when Chris came into the living room and told me I must read Luca’s latest post I was so encouraged that I had to share it all with you! Check out what he has to say…
Forgiveness is a dish best served warmly
The title of this story is “A Credit Card Thief’s Eternal Debt is Paid” (click here for the original) and that’s how it goes.
Forgiveness has stolen the heart of a thief.
Elena, an employee at Netgate, an Internet café in Florence, Italy, discovered a credit card left by a customer. After fraudulently charging nearly $1,000, she was wracked with guilt and called the cardholder, asking her to come by the café.
Gina Erickson, an American missionary with Campus Crusade, was relieved by the call. Sobbing, Elena confessed to Gina that she had used the credit card, promising to pay the charges. Anticipating anger, Elena was dumbfounded by Gina’s forgiveness.
Gina’s fellow missionaries at the University of Florence encouraged their teammate to initiate with Elena further. Reluctantly, Gina stopped by Netgate and invited Elena to lunch. She accepted immediately.
“I feel like my heart is an iceberg,” she told Gina. Recoiling from the recent loss of her father, Elena longed for relationships. Gina listened intently, but she didn’t anticipate the question that followed: “Do you have anything you’d like to share with me?”
Gina explained how God desired a personal relationship with her. Elena received the gift of salvation, and God paid the charge.
If the story’s objective was to make me wallow in amazement, well, I guess it hit the spot real good. Then I thought: I am a very “negative” person – which means, I usually hold a grudge towards people who disrespect me and/or my immediate surroundings – and if I were her, I would have hold a personal grudge. It’s like a friend coming around, comes in, breaks stuff, steals your girlfriend, uses your pillow as an handkerchief and says “I’m sorry” in the end (Okay, that was a long and frustrating example, but I think you got the point). And all you do is “it’s okay, I forgive you”.
But who’s the one who got damaged in all this? Not him, that’s for sure.
My thoughts began to grind and I recalled an example that was in a book called “More Than A Carpenter” by Josh McDowell:
A young woman was picked up for speeding. She was ticketed and taken before the judge. The judge read off the citation and said, “Guilty or not guilty?” The woman replied, “Guilty.” The judge brought down the gavel and fined her $100 or ten days. Then an amazing thing took place. The judge stood up, took off his robe, walked down around in front, took out his billfold, and paid the fine. What’s the explanation of this? The judge was her father.
Not only I am damaged, but I am showing the other that I am granting him something far beyond any material instinct: the will to forgive.
Strike two for the amazement. And that was an example of forgiveness. And now I am struck with a strange feeling in my bowels. And I felt like my grudge was wrong. And “I feel my heart as an iceberg” (sic!). And I’ve used too many “ands”.
Which means: I’ve got to walk a looooooong path before I can call myself a Christian. Long and full of thorns is the way, I just hope the LORD is by my side every time. I wish I could be like Gina.
“Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.’” (Matthew 18:21-22)
“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” (Mark 11:25)“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)
Can’t wait to talk about it with my AGAPE friends. 
Wait a minute. I remember now. Amos already told me this story once…crap, my surprise effect just got ruined.
