God Forgives

We are a people who are pretty good at judgment. And Lord help us, we are even better at it when we're certain that we are in agreement with God on it. 

So we judge "sin" when we see it. We write off sinners as hopelessly lost. We "pray for them," or at least, we say that we're going to. 

And we never forget. 

Sometimes, we might forget the specific thing that someone did that caused us to blacklist them in the first place, but we'll never forget that they were blacklisted. 

Look at our cancel culture. For a number of various reasons, over the course of the past 5-10 years or so, we have been willing to completely write someone off. Take their entire life from them. Wipe their name out of our conversations and our history books. Shut them down. Openly mock them. 

We have seen some celebrities try to make their way back from this. We have seen apologies and repentances. We have seen commitments to treatment and to education. We have seen persons fight back hard against a culture that is all too willing to condemn them forever...and a church that is even more willing than that. 

And yet. 

And yet, Proverbs reminds us that while we're busy being petty, being obstinate, being judgmental, God might not be upset with someone any more. 

God might have already moved on. God might have seen something new in their heart. God might have embraced the bigger picture of all the smaller pieces that we're far too fixated on. 

God may have already forgiven them. 

In fact, we know this is true because God is quick to forgive. That's what the whole Cross thing was about. That's why He sent His Son - to make a way for reconciliation and forgiveness. Even Israel, as often as they messed up, could not incur God's anger forever; He kept forgiving even them. 

He keeps forgiving even us. 

So while we're pretty good at judgment and often think that we're doing the good, righteous, and holy thing by latching onto what God despises and condemning it - forever - I wonder what it would do to our world if we were even better at God's forgiveness, at not staying upset with someone forever....