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SPACE FOR REDEMPTION

by olive Ngoe  
12/28/2014 / Christian Living

As the New Year beckons, it brings with it the promise of new beginnings, new blank pages to write a different script of our lives, if we choose to. If we choose not to dwell on the past, linger on the mistakes or write and rewrite past glories. As I think about the New Year and the family, I am drawn to reflect on forgiveness.
Our society seems to be cross all the time, and there is fault to be found everywhere and with everyone. There is very little tolerance for mistakes and we seem to have altogether forgotten that to err is human. And since society is a reflection on the family unit, then there must be a lot of unforgiveness going around at many a family table; a lot of hang-ups, hurting relationships between parents and their children, between siblings or between couples themselves.
I watch with interest, sometimes as some high profile celebrity couples' unions go sour after the discovery of extra marital affairs or other ills. Apart from the desertion they may face from companies with which they have huge signed huge endorsement deals, my attention is usually arrested by the comments that freely go round. These icons fall prey to sound criticism from everyone who is able to get their say and mostly from not so long ago 'die-hard fans'. As we point accusing fingers at these public figures and revile their names, I wonder how many of us who have oft times done this can really claim to be clean! In real fact, the only reason we don't have fingers pointing at us, is because our lives are not as exposed as theirs- we haven't been caught, yet! Even Jesus challenged the men who were eager to do away with the adulteress to stone her if they really had no sin in their lives. They slowly walked away as they came to the glaring acknowledgement that they weren't perfect either.
And we do the same thing to the ones we love most. A child with bad grades in school or a rebellious nature is quickly written off with unseemly words that ought not to be used on a human being. An offense committed by a loved one will be made fodder for future disagreements and family meetings or used as an excuse not to give them another chance. Siblings may stop talking to each other until sadly, maybe a tragedy forces them back together. A parent will bull-headedly cease all form of communication with their child and become estranged until it is unfortunately too late to do anything but regret. And we take this attitude outside the family circle too, treating our colleagues and employees in the same intolerable way.
Crossing over into the New Year is an occasion for much fanfare. I believe it is so because it carries with it hope: a promise, a hint, a possibility, a wish and a prayer that things will be better. We should also carry this hope with us with regard to our family members-especially those we think or know to have hurt us. Inside every human being, there is some good. And it is that good that we should reflect on and that starts with forgiveness. Forgiveness creates the space for redemption, an opportunity that the offending party is able to change for the better. You don't need to go beyond the cross to see this-Jesus knew what kind of people he died for. If I was him, knowing me, knowing the kind of people I was dying for, I probably would not have willingly gone through with it!
Forgiveness also helps prevent the seed of bitterness from taking root. The truth is that even you and I will most definitely need that chance at some point in our lifetime; and most likely more than once. And at that point we will need someone who believes that we are not so hopelessly evil that we don't deserve to be forgiven. Sometimes the offending party may not change and may not acknowledge the hurt they caused. When we carry them in our hearts, it becomes a poison. And if we do not realize it in time, the poison also denies us our space for redemption.
Justice and punishment do have their place in the family and society, which are no less important, but love embraces more ground in the multitude of sins it is able to cover.
Please do contact me directly by email on [email protected]. Thank you!

original article of OLIVE NGOE

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