Carl Simpson, a carpenter, wrote the following after he was robbed at gunpoint:<\/p>\n
History will note it as one man standing in front of his house with his two infant daughters while another man holds a .45 automatic to his head and goes through his pockets for five dollars and change. The police record it as an armed robbery.<\/p>\n
I remember it as an invasion \u2013 a violation of parts of my life, my psyche, where no one should ever be. Jesus calls it a forgiveness-needing act.<\/p>\n
Jesus knows that 70 x 7 times I will remember that night and be filled with hatred; and Jesus knows that 70 x 7 times the fear of that moment will resurface; and Jesus knows that 70 x 7 times the craving for revenge will well up inside me; and Jesus knows that 70 x 7 times I will weep in the pain that is planted inside me; and Jesus knows that 70 x 7 times he will be whispering in my ear the words of forgiveness.<\/p>\n
Which is to say: forgiving 70 x 7 times is not so much a command as it is a gift. A gift of healing. A gift because that gun, that man, that night is branded in my memory. And for as long as I have the hatred, the fear, the desire for revenge, and the grieving, I will also need and have the forgiving \u2013 Jesus\u2019 forgiving and my forgiving. And that is what Jesus offers, 70 x 7 times.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
The Other Side, July 1983<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carl Simpson, a carpenter, wrote the following after he was robbed at gunpoint: History will note it as one man standing in front of his house with his two infant daughters while another man holds a .45 automatic to his head and goes through his pockets for five dollars and change. The police record it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[527,1402,94,481,1544],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}