Heart Renovations – Forgiveness
From: Vickie Guernsey
Read this today from – “The LOVE as a WAY of LIFE” by Gary Chapman and Elisa Stanford:
“I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor (Trouble) a door of hope…Hosea 2:15.”
Boston’s Liberty Hotel boasts luxury accommodations, upscale restaurants, and a celebrity clientele. Guests enjoy more than glamour, however; they also enjoy a glimpse into history. Built in 1851, the building was once the Charles Street Jail. For 120 years, the building hosted such “guests” as prisoners from a World War II German Submarine; the thieves behind the Great Brinks Robbery in 1950; and Frank Abagnale Jr., the con artist portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie Catch Me If You Can.
Years after being declared unfit for prisoners, the granite building underwent a $150 million renovation. Today the entrance of the former jail is the doorway to a fine Italian restaurant – where guests dine next to original jail bars and brick walls. The catwalks where guards once stood watch are now elegant iron-railing balconies. As one former prisoner said upon visiting the hotel, “How you could take something that was so horrible and turn it into something of tremendous beauty, I don’t know.”
This is a dim reflection of the transformation God offers us by turning opportunities for punishment in our lives into gateways to restoration. We do the same every time we extend forgiveness to someone who doesn’t deserve it. God’s justice will not allow him to overlook evil. Yet, in his love, God designed a plan so that the place of justice might become a place of grace.
THOUGHT: Think of someone you harbor anger toward. What would it look like if you allowed your resentment to be transformed into a place of grace?
I also read 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new. Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
According to what I’ve read, I am to be an ambassador of Christ and share His message of reconciliation. I don’t have the right to pick and choose who is worthy of that message and who is not. I also do not have the right to harbor – grudges, anger, malice, resentment, bitterness, fear or any other heavy ‘weight’ that would keep me from being that ambassador. Ambassadors do not have the luxury of harboring and openly displaying ‘their feelings’. They represent a higher authority. Sincerely – so grateful for the LOVE, MERCY, FORGIVENESS & GRACE shown to me, Vickie Guernsey