OnFire Encouragement Letter

Hi Folks:

What an exciting Sunday. In the morning we voted to put $2000 more against our church loan, reducing it to below $20 000. To put this in perspective, our church, which averages 50 people each week, has reduced the loan from $42 000 to under $20 000 in less than 4 years. God is good! We celebrate these sorts of things with some ice cream cake.

In the evening, we had a combined worship service with some other churches from the area. When we have these services, we put together a worship band and take it up several notches from our normal worship. Last night was a fantastic night. We played well together and people really enjoyed the singing and the musical specials from the other churches. They had to tie a rope to me and pull me down from the ceiling! Well, not quite, but I felt like I was floating.

Jan and I are excited for other reasons, too. We haven’t bought new furniture since we were married 17 years ago. This year we decided it was time. We found a new set here in Shelburne and it looks like it will arrive Wednesday.

Other than that, life continues according to its normal rhythms and patterns. Hope you’re having a good week.

Troy

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Let me tell you about some of the experiences I’ve had over the past week or so. It doesn’t always happen where a theme runs through the whole week, but this week it did..

I talked with several people going through marriage break-up. My role as a pastor often takes me into the lives of people to help them in this difficult time. It is not easy to navigate the fog of loss, hurt, and recovery.

I talked with several pastors dealing with tough church situations. And on the weekend a friend moved after being voted out of his church. He expressed his great love for the many people who supported him and had much grace for those who opposed him. He had plenty of opportunity, but didn’t trash-talk any of them. His attitude and example are inspiring, although he would probably just shrug his shoulders at the suggestion.

Friday night we thought we’d lost one of our cats. We heard cats fighting outside earlier in the evening. Enzo, the youngest cat, didn’t return that night. I was angry, upset that we might have to face this with the boys after having to put down a cat only a year ago. Jan thought I was angry with her - not so - but thought I blamed her because I was out when it all happened. As a result, she hardly slept all night. When I realized I was responsible for her sleepless night, I apologized. By the way, the cat showed up in the middle of the night after Jan turned on the outdoor lights. I felt foolish.

The theme of the week seems to be forgiveness. Forgiveness after hurts, betrayals, and foolishness. I looked ahead in the passages dealing with Peter and found the one where he went to Jesus to ask if it was enough to forgive someone seven times (Matthew 18:21).

I know what he was asking. How much is too much to take? How much means they are taking advantage of me? How much should I be expected to put up with? Two? Three? Four offenses? Seven times ought to be generous enough, shouldn’t it?

As he often did, Jesus told a story to make his point. After begging to be released from a heavy debt, a forgiven debtor then went to shake down a man owing him a fraction of the amount . The first lender heard about the trouble and immediately called the man’s loan, throwing him into debtors’ prison to be tortured until he repaid the full amount.

Jesus ended the story with these words. "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." (Matt. 18:35*)

I often remark that other people expect us to show more grace than they are willing to give. Perhaps God experiences this from us - that we are more willing to receive grace than we are to grant it. Yet, God expects us to show the same kind of grace that he shows us. Compared to this standard, seven times forgiveness seems small. That’s why Jesus said, “not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:22)

I think forgiveness is one of the toughest things we are called to do. I work on it all the time. And I know you do, too. We cannot do otherwise, even though it is difficult.

Here are some pointers which help me. Forgiveness is a process. We need to do it again and again to make it happen. Forgiveness does not mean I wasn’t hurt. I was, so I need to acknowledge it, but not dwell on it. Forgiveness does not deny that what they did was wrong. Rather, it means I will let God take care of getting justice.

I hope this helps. I know its not easy, but it is necessary if I want to be on fire.

Troy

ON FIRE is a weekly letter of encouragement by Troy Dennis. To be added to or removed from the ON FIRE list contact him at onfire@eastlink.ca . Archives are located at www.onfireletter.com This letter published Oct 15, 2007.