18 March 2009

forgiveness

i´m glad i´m not God because there are some things i don´t know i could forgive. at least, i don´t know if i could forgive without first doling out consequences or making someone pay for their past, then no longer remembering their wrongdoings.

this comes about after reading of the guilty plea of josef fritzl, the "monster of amstetten," in austria, who locked his daughter away for 24 years and raped her continuously. if he repented and turned his life to Jesus, who is the author and perfector of our faith and through whom we are reconciled to God the Father, he would be as equal a co-heir with Christ in his kingdom as i would be. as a human, i don´t like that idea very much because of the pain he has caused not only his daughter, but her children. these victims now live in a different part of the country with new identities and are receiving intense counseling, but what about the scars of their past?

scars heal our wounds and help make us new, but they also mark a part of our past; each one has a story. Jesus´ blood washes clean our wounds of sin and makes us a new creation! it´s the great wonder of salvation, and it´s freely given to us without holding anything over our heads. that´s another thing that´s hard to reconcile as humans--a free gift.

05 March 2009

just wait

i've heard a lot in my life about waiting. i've waited to get through my illness. i've waited for a wife. i've waited for my studies. i've waited for my job as an auxiliar to be processed. i've waited for residency and for residency to be renewed. there's been a lot of waiting in my life.

one thing i've learned about waiting is that the waiting itself is part of the journey, not just a holding pattern before things start. i've tried to seek the Lord in times of waiting to listen to what he has to say to me and learn from the experience as a preparation for the next step.

just wait.