When Erich Honecker was deposed in 1989 as dictator of East Germany, he was sick with cancer and a liability to the new regime. Of all things, the new communist regime turned to the church and the church went to Rev. Uwe Holmer. A long story short, though Rev. Holmer’s family had suffered personally because of Honecker, they said, “Yes, it is the Christian thing to do” and took Honecker and his wife Margot into their home north of Berlin for three months.
I asked Rev. Holmer, “How were you able to do this?” He said in his daily devotion, in “stillness before God,” he recounted his own sins and need for forgiveness. Had he not done that daily, he said the poison of not forgiving would have consumed him. Is any unforgiveness poisoning your outlook?
“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Forgiving others does not condone the wrong done to you. It’s not about abandoning the justice system. It is about this: In your inner being, are you going to let that person and the wrong done to you continue to poison your thoughts, your emotions, your very self?
- Thanks to all who supported the St. Baldrick’s event at Concordia Seminary! You helped us raise over $10,000 for research to defeat childhood cancers. So much good to do; why be consumed with unforgiveness?
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