Verse of the day

The verse of the day is Matthew 18: 21-22.

21Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" 22Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

I had the wonderful experience this weekend to come face to face with a few people who have hurt me badly... some not so long ago, in the past year. Two had the same reaction of not talking to them, but two totally different reactions inwardly. The third? Well, I learned something this weekend.

Saturday I went to IHOP with my parents and niece. Almost as we were getting our check, in walked a woman who emotionally bruised me about 6 years ago.... pre-ZC Sterling. It was in a restaurant and I didn't go up to her. I know I should have, just to see her reaction and see if she's really that scary or just my perception from before. I have no ill feelings towards her, other than the times her sayings haunt me. Well, ok... I did joke with someone and say I had an early Halloween present by seeing the woman. ha ha Sunday, I went to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Aside from the traffic, what I didn't talk about was I had a sighting of some others that hurt me... in the last year, They were there. Not NEARLY as drastic as what this woman did, but still left a bad taste in my mouth. Again, I didn't say anything to them, but I know I failed. As soon as I saw them, my blood boiled.

Last night on the way home from work, I was listening to KWAVE and Raul Reis was on preaching Matthew 18. He started talking about how impossible it is to forgive others, in our flesh and how we need to repent and give EVERYTHING to God when you say you forgive someone. That 70x7 is 490 times and that this is a lot and stuff. Ok, major conviction because I haven't forgiven these people completely (from the Sunday sighting). My heart was so heavy. In the car, right then and there, I gave it up to God. If I was going to Compass to help with the food, I know I'd see them tonight and I'd probably even say more than hello to them.

Here's the ironic (for lack of better term) part.

I met this guy in May. After about a month, he asked for a clean break. No dating, no friendship, nothing. I could understand the no dating part... I didn't want to pursue anything more than friendship at that point either. I called three times that week asking for him to explain [ok, call me a chicken -- I called when I knew he'd be in class and wouldn't answer!]... and even said something to the effect of "You'll regret walking away from this friendship." His reasons just didn't make sense. But I got no response. It still took me 2 months before I deleted his number from my cell phone but I still kept his email address. Well, this weekend I sent him an email along with a bunch of other people who were blind copied (which I had done a few times since May) and attached a current picture and a brief current events email talking about work, church and other stuff. I received an email this morning from the guy. It said, "I sent you a text message a while back, I don't know if you received it or not. In case you didn't, I wanted to know if you still wanted to be friends. If you do contact me. If not, well, I understand." I didn't know we "were" friends, first of all. But uhm, can you say "Answer to prayer??" All along, despite random times of minor anger (after the initial anger went away), I was praying for him. Never expecting an answer, but at the same time knowing praying for him was right. And that is the one of the first things I told him and the background.

He and I will be reconciling… it will be a slow process but one that will be blessed by God because God calls for His children to get along.