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EN(dur)ANCE by Robin Gudal

Three words, chained together, jumped off the page like a fierce lion and attacked my heart:

“Hate is waste.” — “Even As You and I” by Nelle Wahler Kulow

I remember as a young momma, when the kids tried out the phrase; “I hate…”. It rubbed against my soul like coarse sandpaper. It was a phrase that we did not tolerate in our home.

Having foster kids, who had lived some hard realities in their short lives, the word was more realistic than I had ever experienced, but I believed the consequences of letting such hardness penetrate one’s heart would only cause more damage.

Thank you, Jesus, for the godly counselors you put in their lives.

In the book, the reference to hate is from Jochebed, the mother of Moses. Her reality was that as a young momma her son’s life was in imminent danger of being brutally taken. Thus, she created a plan to save him through a child-loving Egyptian princess. She was also teaching the two older children, Aaron and Miriam, not to hate the Egyptians whom they were in bondage to. Read Exodus.

What often seems humanly impossible is made possible through the grace, love and forgiveness extended to us through Jesus Christ.

When I think of “crazy forgiveness,” I reference the movie and book, “Forgiving Dead Man Walking.” Debbie Morris authored the book, as it was her real-life story of being kidnapped, raped, tortured and attempted to murder. The power in her journey came to me at the end when she is quoted saying:

“God’s idea of justice was so different from ours; how God’s grace extended to any of us who were willing to accept it, no matter what we’ve done. As human beings we so often focus on justice that we fail to appreciate God’s promise of grace. If we want to insist on justice, we might do well to stop and realize, ‘God help us if any of us get what we deserve!’”

The world can find justification for hate. Debbie shares: “Justice didn’t do a thing to heal me, forgiveness did. Jesus commands us to ‘love one another.’ ‘Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.’ 1 Peter 4:8 ESV.”

Easy? No. However it frees us from a stone-cold heart.

You’ve likely heard such miraculous stories also or may have even personally experienced it from another human being — either being the forgiver or the one forgiven.

In addition, all of us have access to the forgiveness that Christ gives. All we must do is accept it.

“I have a great need for Christ; I have a great Christ for my need.” — C.H. Spurgeon

Never forget you are loved with an everlasting love!

Let us work hard to live with grace, love, forgiveness and cast out “hatred” from our vocabulary.

Robin (Beckman) Gudal is intentional in life, a wife, momma, nana, friend and a flawed and imperfect follower of Jesus.