So I am gonna share a real life
story about something that happened about 27 years ago.
I was just heading home from work. It was about 2 o'clock in the
after noon. I had my oldest son in the car with me, sitting in the front seat
next to me. We were in my brand, spanking new car. It was literally only 2
weeks old. My first new car, ever.
We had stopped at a red light and now had started to turn left on
a green left hand turn signal.
It was a loud, long horn blast that caught my attention. I
will never, ever forget that horn it
saved my life and the life of my first born son.
The intersection was a familiar one. I passed through it every
day. However this day when I heard that sound, it gripped my very soul and
instantly I slammed on my breaks with both feet as hard as I could.
In what seemed to be a split second and at the same time seemed to
take an eternity a car came racing through the intersection and slammed right
into us!
It was going so fast and hit so hard that it pushed our car
sideways 3 car widths over!
The car took my bumper completely off and wrapped it around the passenger
side tire.
The police investigator said the car was traveling at least 90+
mph and had I not stopped when I did, most likely would have killed me possibly
my 5 year old son Joshua.
The driver of the car that hit us was an underage boy driving his
"brothers" unregistered vehicle without permission and the vehicle was
not insured.
Can you imagine?
I mean, my husband and I had three very young children. No money.
We couldn't afford to
pay for this. What were we going to do?
We were perfectly within our rights to pursue this legally. But we couldn’t
afford an attorney. All we could do was pray – and pray we did.
We asked ourselves.
What would Jesus do?
Before
we had decided what to do the man who owned the car came
to us. He basically begged us for mercy. Explained his situation and asked if
he could make payment to us. My husband and I agreed.
We had mercy on him. The man
agreed to pay a certain amount each pay day. Our car did not get fixed right
away. I drove around in my brand new car with a bad bumper for a little while.
We had every right to pursue him
legally. Instead we chose to show him mercy. But what a witness!
Perhaps we should learn from this situation?
Why am I sharing this 27 year old
story now?
Because for some time now my heart has been so grieved as I look
around within the Body of Christ and see
how far away we are from this. There is such division between us.
In our families and homes. In our
small groups. Our churches. Between denominations. We have allowed our adversary Satan to use us as dividing wedges…and
it needs to stop!
The Lord himself commanded us to
love each other. It is recorded in the Gospel of John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you:
Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By
this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
LOVE - What IS LOVE?
Paul tells us what love is in
1 Corinthians chapter 13
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not
boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not
self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of
wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the
truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always
perseveres.
I know there is
not one who is perfect but God himself.
Certainly not I.
Lately, though I
have had such a heavy heart, more so than ever before as I have seen more and
more divisions take place within the family of God. Within even my own homee.
My own family. My own church.
This
should not be!
Let there
be no mistake - God is not happy about it!
There
is absolutely no excuse good enough for it.
We are commanded and empowered to love. We
are commanded and empowered to forgive.
And unless we do
so we will not be forgiven by God nor will our gifts that we offer up to the
Lord be accepted by Him.
Who are we to withhold mercy from anyone?
