I know of no more powerful word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know, too, of none more profound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s a word we really know very well. I mean, intellectually, perhaps, we think we comprehend it, but yet we keep crafting creative reasons why it isn\u2019t necessary, isn\u2019t deserved, and would best be intentionally withheld. Hence, maybe we know what it means, but we have minimized the power it unprecedentedly holds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many words have been written and spoken since the horrifying assassination of Charlie Kirk two weeks ago. Let me just say many who write and speak now clearly didn\u2019t know him very well. I\u2019ll rephrase. When there\u2019s a person we aren\u2019t in the regular habit of listening to, learning from or conversing with, it\u2019s easy to contrive concrete opinion based more on the incomplete collection of snippets and soundbites as opposed to the totality of context and conversation. Charlie would have offered those with both like and contrary opinion generous grace. He interacted with all. He also believed grace is always available to us all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet with the plethora of words echoed over the last few weeks, one word in one sentence reverberated loudest and arguably most powerfully. It was spoken by his weeping widow at the memorial. She said in regard to the man who murdered her husband\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI forgive him.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Erika Kirk continued\u2026 \u201cI forgive him, because it was what Christ did, and is what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love, and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Erika, in her pain, in her grief, in her absolutely unimaginable heartache, has chosen to forgive a man who wronged her, who did something deeply immoral, whose evil and cruelty is unquestionable. His sin cannot be undone. And yet she chooses to forgive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n To forgive is a conscious decision. It\u2019s a choice to let go of the resentment, anger and desire for vengeance against the person who hurt you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, there is no question they hurt you. There is no question the assassin in Utah hurt Charlie Kirk and his family and the millions who loved and respected him across the globe. So why forgive?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many have suggested it\u2019s less about the forgiven and more about the forgiver, as the granting of forgiveness has the power to give us peace; it\u2019s freeing. It\u2019s what frees us up from the anger, bitterness and resentment that rots us from the inside out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still more encourage us to forgive because it reflects God\u2019s own gracious character. He is a God that consistently promotes and even implores forgiveness. Like him, it\u2019s important that we remember that forgiveness doesn\u2019t exonerate the perpetrator from all earthly consequence, but it removes us from any attempt at control and instead trusts that God will bring justice in his time. It means trusting in God more than me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us also briefly acknowledge that to forgive someone is not saying, \u201cHey, it\u2019s ok; all my anger is immediately gone.\u201d We don\u2019t have to deny how we feel. But forgiveness is a profound recognition of how God treats each of us in our <\/em>imperfection; that\u2019s the message of Jesus. If God\u2019s not going to hold my sins against me, then I will not do that to another either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If I choose to hold sins against an equally imperfect other,\u00a0 then I will never be able to love you well. God commands us to love\u2026 not just to love those who agree with me or who don\u2019t hold an opinion I\u2019ve cast as oppression or those easiest for me to talk to. That\u2019s what Erika Kirk was saying on Sunday. The answer is always love. Love is not selective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So if our answer isn\u2019t always love, what is it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the scary part; the opposite of love is hate. The answer to hate is clearly not more hate. The answer is learning to love\u2026 even when it\u2019s hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Genuinely\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I know of no more powerful word. I know, too, of none more profound. And I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s a word we really know very well. I mean, intellectually, perhaps, we think we comprehend it, but yet we keep crafting creative reasons why it isn\u2019t necessary, isn\u2019t deserved, and would best be intentionally withheld. Hence, … <\/p>\n