Thoughts for another day

January 11, 2012

Today's verse: Sirach 28:3. Should a man nourish anger against his fellows and expect healing from the Lord?  (NAB – copyright acknowledged)

(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

I recently had an interaction with a friend, who lives in Dubai, with whom I re-connected with just before Christmas last year, after many years.  In the course of our conversation, I discovered that he wasn't on talking terms with his sister, who too was a dear friend of mine, and he tells me that he considers her 'dead'!  Being in the Lord for some time now and shocked at what I heard, I asked him how he could celebrate the commemoration of the birth of the Lord, which was to come soon, if he didn't talk to his real sister?  He had no answer.  Then he started giving me lame excuses as to how she had treated his family badly etc.  I told him that everybody once in a while does it, but it doesn't mean they consider the other sibling dead.

Then he told me was that there was no starting point or rather he would be too embarrassed to first start talking to her.  I told him that I'd initiate the thing and then arrange a meeting with her and so on, but he vehemently objected to that, so much so, that he visited Mumbai, India, where I live a few days after Christmas but didn't bother to call me up, etc. which, before the topic of his sister had come, he had said he would.  I mention this episode to explain how foolish we are in our living and how noxious we are with our own people.   Mind you this is the scenario with not only this friend but with a large number of Christians.

Now what do you think happens when these people go to God and ask pardon for their sins?  Do you think He will forgive?  I'd like to quote what Jesus said about this in His parable of the unforgiving servant when He mentioned that the master of the unforgiving servant would punish him severely: 'This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart' Mt. 18:35, NIV.  Imagine, we're unable to forgive, then what healing can we expect of the Lord?  How can we even stand before Him, with the anger, bitterness and animosity we bear in our hearts?  This is a big burden and we cannot stand before Him with it for He will not want to see us at all.  Its best we forgive and forget.  It may be difficult but we must.  In that we will find the Lord of heaven and earth with us and expect His healing too.