Forgive Them, Father–They Just Don’t Understand

Image: Amanda Krill

I suppose I could do an entire post just listing the reasons I have been unable to write for however many days, but let’s just leave it at this: there are times when life gets in the way and the needs of those we love take precedence to everything else.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about forgiveness. My novel, The Sin of His Father, just released last week, bears the subtitle The Healing Power of Forgiveness. Coincidently, I have had to come face-to-face with the importance of forgiveness in my own life. Oh, not even close to the level of forgiveness demanded of the novel’s protagonist—but when the need to forgive another smacks us in the face, it can feel enormous.

The need to let go of rancor that simmers just below the surface came to my attention when someone who knows and loves both of us well, shared a seemingly insignificant fact about the person who is the source of my anger. This insight helped me understand better the behavior that causes me to react and changed my emotional response from a feeling of resentment to one of compassion.

I wonder if Jesus, in his prayer to his Father, had a clear grasp of the dynamics behind the Jewish leaders’ fear–a fear that drove them to the extreme of trying to destroy him? Of course he did.

I wonder what would happen if politicians made an effort to understand the motivating force behind one another’s point of view. Is it possible that maybe something would get done for the betterment of their (our) country as a whole, rather than for personal aggrandizement?

And if each of us took the time to talk to those with whom we have disagreements—I wonder if walls would fall down, revealing the needs and vulnerabilities of another, inviting us to acceptance and forgiveness.

When we say “God is Love,” aren’t we admitting that God is forgiveness, too? This is not the easiest part of loving, is it? However, who said love was easy?

Introducing: The Sin of His Father

“Your father didn’t leave us, Mattie. I was raped.”

These words, uttered by his mother on her deathbed, propelled Matt Maxwell into the fear that he could become like this man he never knew.

Abandoning the woman he loved, his closest friend, and a lifestyle that suited him well, Matt made choices that opened him to an unlikely friendship and a new relationship with the God of his youth. However, the terrible secret he harbored eventually took him down a path of self-destruction and alcoholism.

What would it take to embrace his truth, accept himself and his past, and discover peace in the power of forgiveness and love?

Available in Print and Kindle Editions–Click on Cover below.