Sunday morning we went to church as usual to EastHill, a mega church in our community. Pastor Jason gave a message on forgiveness. While it was a good message, I didn't really have anyone or anything to forgive at the time and wasn't expecting the need to apply it that particular day. After all, later that day, my family and I were going to go to a fun baseball game, which someone had given us 5 free infield tickets, a $13.00/each value. Earlier in the week, we had told our daughter, she could bring a friend, since we also had library tickets for a free baseball game with a paying adult. So after church, we loaded everyone into the minivan with water bottles and headed downtown. That day, the Beavers were playing LA. It took us awhile to find parking, but finally we were on our way to the ticket booths, which is when we saw the SIGN: NO BEVERAGES ALLOWED. Oh well, so we had to pour the water out, a minor detail. We could always refill them at the water fountain. Smiling, we handed the Lady at the ticket booth our tickets, but not for long. She apologized to us but informed us that we had to have a paying adult for the free ticket. I couldn't believe it, and so nicely explained to her that we had 5 paying tickets already. When she said she would call the manager, I breathed a quick prayer for justice and mercy. But, when she returned the answer was the same. Apparently pre-bought tickets isn't the same. Unfortuanately, I had just done bills that friday revealing our money was tight and didn't have much more than grocery money for the next 3 weeks. Because we had already paid for parking, we opted for the $8.00 general admit ticket for all of us to save $5.00. The view was okay except for the beam that more than once blocked our view in outfield. While seating there, I began to grumble about PGE who had to make a lousey extra 8 bucks. In fact, had I known, I could have brought more library tickets from home, and got all the kids in for free with 1 paying adult, while saving our other tickets. It was just biting away at me, and then it hit me. PGE's injustice was not worth losing my joy over and ruining my day with my family. In fact maybe I could apply Pastor Jason's message after all. I made a choice right then and there to forgive. By the time evening came and we went to a 101 class at EastHill, I forgot to mention it to Pastor Jason and his wife Nikki about how his sermon came in handy. I guess Forgiveness helps us to forget those injustices and enjoy Freedom found in our God.
----Posted by Cambria
Questions to think about:
1. Do you struggle with forgiveness or does forgiveness come easy for you?
2. Who is God asking you to forgive today?
3. Do you need to experience a deeper freedom found in God who gives you the ability to forgive?
