We are concluding yet another year of hurts, disappointments, joys and even triumphs. But I want to really not as an oxymoron begin 2012 with a new mind and to loose all the baggage that has prevented me from walking in my destiny. The worst thing we take with us into the New Year is resentment against another. Forgiveness is not something we owe to each other. It is an act of worship to God.
How many times have you stood patiently at the baggage carousel, watching the luggage track spit out piece after piece of luggage, but never yours? Why is it, when all chance of my suitcase ever showing up is long gone, I feel compelled to stand there and watch the few remaining orphan bags circling aimlessly, as if believing that my stuff is going to suddenly materialize before my eyes if I stare hard enough? But it doesn't.
It's happened again. The airlines have lost your luggage. The good news is that eventually they almost always find your bag and attempt to send it on to you. (Despite all my traveling, I've only really "lost luggage" once.) The bad news is that lost luggage has an uncanny sense of timing, managing to show up either just as you are about to head for the airport for your flight home or, worse yet, showing up about 10 minutes after you've left for a new destination. Some pieces of luggage have been known to follow frequent fliers around for weeks before finally ending up back in their owners' possession.
Losing your luggage can be one of life's most annoying, discombobulating, fuzzy-toothed inconveniences. Savvy travelers have learned never to check through crucial papers, regularly needed medications, or all their socks and underwear. It's just too risky.
But sometime in the next couple of days as we eat our last helpings of black-eyed peas, we should all make a conscious, exerted effort to "lose our luggage." Most of us are far more bogged down with baggage than we may even realize.
This call to forgiveness, Paul declares, is not really an optional request. Forgiveness isn't something Christians should extend to one another just because it's a "nice" thing to do or because it will promote peace within the body of Christ. Paul makes the connection between divine forgiveness and human acts of forgiveness a bit more explicit than that. Paul insists that "as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive" (v.13).
Forgiveness is not something we "owe" each other. Forgiveness is not something we can truly "offer" each other. We have the capacity for forgiveness only because God has first forgiven us. Without first experiencing God's forgiveness in our lives, we have nothing to offer anyone else. Any act of forgiveness we have become capable of extending or expressing to another is directly related to an act of worship to God. We acknowledge God's forgiveness of us and extend this divine gift of forgiveness to others as part of an act of worship to God. By forgiving others, we offer a genuine Christian form of worship to our God, who saves us through divine forgiveness.
God knows that as imperfect human beings, it is hard for us to let go of our carefully guarded, well-worn bags of resentments and old hurts. Each of us has names and faces of individuals that we simply cannot imagine being able to forgive.
Paul's letter to the Colossians offers one other bit of advice that should bring us up short in 2012 when we find ourselves busily packing away plans for revenge or plotting ways to get even. "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus" (v.17).
We can achieve this goal because Christ has paid the ultimate price in forgiving our sins on an old rugged cross. This example of unmerited suffering is the greatest example for us to loose ourselves for the sake of our community in being renewed, refreshed and rejuvenated as we begin a New Year of unprecedented possibilities.
Follow Reverend William E. Flippin, Jr. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@pastorbilljr
1) No individual is given an opportunity, before he is born, to choose the nature he will be born with; and
2) Being unforgiving generally provides no benefits and may well prove harmful and costly.
We can train ourselves to be more forgiving simply by reflecting more frequently on these obvious facts.
To become more forgiving, we don't need to resort to a lot of nonsense about offering ourselves to God, or the Great Pumpkin, or some other fabulous deity. We don't need to wait for some fantastic "divine forgiveness" to pour through us and fill us with forgiveness. We only need our own little old three-pound human brains. Religious make-believe is not required at all.
- But thanks anyway, Reverend Flippin!