24 February, Saturday — The Story that Matters

Saturday of the 1^st Week of Lent

Deu 26:16-19
Mt 5:43-48

“But I say this to you: love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you…”

Of all Jesus’s teachings, I find this one of the hardest ones to swallow: Love your enemies, pray for them. Wait, what…? When I first read that, I was thinking of all the past hurt that I had gone through and remembering how angry I had been at the people who had caused it, and how I had wanted them to hurt like I had, suffer like they had caused me. I wanted vengeance! And here Jesus is telling me to love them instead. How??!!

I was going to tell you a story about me, but I found a better one. This story was shared on StoryCorps, a non-profit organization in the U.S. that records meaningful conversations of ordinary people to be shared and stored. The story is about a lady called Mary Johnson-Roy whose only son and child was shot and killed by a man named Oshea Israel. Ten years after Israel was convicted and incarcerated, Johnson-Roy decided to visit him in prison. She faltered, but prayed about it and eventually confronted him. At the end of the visit, she was crying, and Israel reached over and hugged her, and she knew at that moment, that she had forgiven him, the weight of all the anger and hurt was over. After his release, the two kept in touch and developed a mother-son bond. Israel moved next door to her and turned his life around; as for Johnson-Roy, she got herself a ‘second son’ and was able to witness Israel’s key moments in life that made her proud like any mother would.

When I first encountered the story, I wondered how Johnson-Roy found the strength to do what she did after going through such a traumatic tragedy. I don’t know what she went through during the ten years that she was grieving and hurting, but I imagine there must have been many times where she must have asked God, “Why?” Ten years is a long time to wait for God’s story to unfold, but I don’t know, perhaps He felt that was what she needed to prepare for the story that would come next. For the forgiveness to be absolute, for the anger and hurt to be completely replaced by love.

I wonder what she had prayed for in her solitude with God. But I understand that Jesus would have wanted us to pray not just for our own healing, but for that of our enemies. He would have wanted us to pray for their conversion, for them to turn away from the very thing they had hurt us, for God’s peace to replace the trouble in their hearts and minds. To pray for God’s plan to unfold within them.

It took me many years to figure out why Jesus said that – love your enemies, pray for them – and I’m still figuring it out; I don’t yet have all the answers. Praying for them ceases to shine the light on me, it shines the light on them — those who have persecuted you, hurt you or insulted you. It shines a light on the goodness that Jesus is about to perform through them, the enlightenment, the change in heart. It shines a light on Jesus’ mercy, because he was merciful and taught us to be, therefore because of this outpouring of mercy, someone else is saved. The spotlight is not on us. It is not to say that our hurt should diminish or that our story does not matter, but… there is a bigger story that needs to be told. And if we allow Jesus to use our story to tell his story, what a story that would be — a story of grace, mercy, forgiveness, love.

Johnson-Roy and Israel ended up touring the country, sharing their extraordinary story of love and forgiveness with the world. They even met with world leaders — President Obama thanked Johnson-Roy for her service. It’s not to say that the same thing will happen to us too. But because they allowed their story to be shared, this message of love and forgiveness grew wings and spread. This is the story that the world has been longing to hear, to help with their own hurt and forgiveness. The story that Jesus wants us to share, the story that matters.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Annette Soo)

Prayer: Lord, help us to forgive others as you have forgiven us. Help us to heal from our hurt and to learn to pray for those who have hurt us; that your glory, and not our hurt, will be the forefront for all to witness. Help us to understand that in our forgiveness and praying for other, we too will find healing.   

Thanksgiving: Thank you Lord, for your unending mercy and love, for the font of forgiveness that you give all of us, no matter our past or situation in life.