Happy Wednesday!

I pray this writing finds you well and enjoying these beautiful even though slightly untypical spring days. The cold mornings and warm and windy afternoons make for interesting clothing choices. We are slowly getting back on track after the long weekend.

Matthew 6: 14 (from the Amplified Bible) “For if you forgive people their trespasses [their “reckless and willful sins, “leaving them, letting them go, and “giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”

One of the parts of the Kairos weekend is a time of forgiveness. The brothers in white make a list of people they have offended on a piece of flash paper and throw them in a fire proof bowl. At the end of the forgiveness ceremony, the flash paper is lit and is instantly incinerated. This is a visual image of how God through Jesus forgives our sins instantly. Later they make a list of those they need to forgive and finally they must come to forgive themselves.

While on the Kairos weekend I heard a wonderful story in a chapel service and wanted to share it with you.

It seems there was this farmer who was famous for raising prize winning roosters. He also had a son of whom he was very proud. One day the farmer gave his son a beautiful brand new red sports car. The young man was completely excited as you can imagine and asked his father if he could go into town to show his friends. The young man drives proudly into town to show off his new car. After several hours of merry making and partying the young man discovered he had passed his curfew and drove a bit too fast going home. He rounded the corner of the driveway of his home with gravel flying and hit his father’s prize rooster. Feathers flew and rooster remains were all over his car while on the porch sat his father quietly rocking in a front porch rocker. The son picked up the dead rooster and took it up to his father and apologized and asked forgiveness. His father granted forgiveness and told him to get a shovel from the shed and bury the rooster. The son buried the rooster.

The next day, the son still felt so badly about what he had done that he got the shovel and dug up the rooster, brought it back to his Father and once again asked for forgiveness. The father told his son that he had already forgiven him and all is well. The next day the son did the same thing; dug up the rooster and took it too his father and once again asked for forgiveness. This went on for several days and this rooster is getting really smelly and decomposing. Finally the father asked his son, “How many times are you going to dig up that rooster?”

Each of us has done things of which we are not proud. But God loves us so much that His forgiveness is there just for the asking. God has the power to forgive and forget. We have the ability to forgive, but we still remember. What we need to remember is that if God can forgive us our sins and short comings then we must forgive each other and we need to forgive ourselves. So, stop digging up that rooster and accept God’s forgiveness and bask in His love and grace.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes, count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.