March 09 Martha's Musings

While engaging in some spring cleaning earlier in the week, I came across an old poem that I cut out of the Dallas Morning News several decades ago. It is a short poem, and the paper is discolored from the passage of time, but the words remain true. Coincidentally, or possibly not, we are now in Lent, the preparatory time prior to Easter. The poem, author unknown, is entitled “Forgiveness”. These are the words:

The friend who ran off with your wife,
Forgive him for his lust;
The chum who sold you phony stocks,
Forgive his breach of trust;
The pal who schemed behind your back,
Forgive his evil plot;
And when you’re done, forgive yourself
‘Cause you are all you’ve got.

There are several tricky things to forgive in these few lines. Then again, the Lord never promised that forgiveness was easy. Imagine all the awful stuff the Lord stands in judgement of. It makes my head hurt just to think about it. One of the things that I like most about this poem is that most of it pertains to the individual’s personal need to forgive others. The last two lines are the only ones related to personal forgiveness. I believe that it is impossible to forgive oneself until we confess our sins to our Lord. God, and God alone, has the final say-so regarding forgiveness. Probably because He knows our heart and minds, so He alone knows our sincerity. But once you sincerely confess your sins, they are forgiven. That is the whole point of Easter! When Christ forgives you, celebrate by forgiving yourself. It is a very big deal!

Blessings,
Martha Arizpe, St. John’s Prayer Team