Articles
Remembering to (Forgive &) Forget
While casting about for ways to rid himself of a pesky wasp nest, his eye fell upon his trusty Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner. Armed with this fearsome weapon, James attacked the wasp nest. He sucked up all the wasps, who buzzed angrily as they struggled in vain against the wind-tunnel. The dustbag was soon alive with their buzzing.
James now found that he had a new problem: to wit, a vacuum cleaner bag full of live, disgruntled wasps. He had to find a way to kill them before he could safely turn off the vacuum. And while his previous idea was merely ill-considered, his next was a masterpiece of moronity.
He held the vacuum tube in one hand, a can of RAID in the other, and proceeded to spray the insecticide into the vacuum. What our smart young scientist failed to remember is that aerosols are flammable, and vacuum cleaner motors generate heat. The resulting explosion removed his facial hair, and scattered the dusty, angry contents of the Dirt Devil all over the vicinity.
Adding insult to injury, James was not the only one to survive with minor injuries. The wasps proceeded to vent their spleen upon the exposed (and slightly scorched) skin of the scientist, who referred to the episode as “an unfortunate lapse in calculation of consequences.”<http://www.darwinawards.com/personal/personal2007-04.html>
Wouldn’t it be fine and dandy to live in a world where we didn’t (wide awake and with our eyes wide open) make just plain stupid and dumb mistakes? A world where we kept ourselves out of trouble? A world where we always used our best judgment, did our absolute best to do what we know is right, and never crossed the line of offense to those around us and to God? A world where we never suffered “an unfortunate lapse in calculation of consequences”?
Truth is, most of us aren’t all that good at consequence calculating. Not that we’re unable to see a potential bad ending of an “ill-considered” action or a random opening of our mouth; it’s that sometimes we simply choose not to look that far ahead. And, that’s no new affliction.
“Then it happened in the spring...when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, ‘Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?’” (II Samuel 11:1a-3).
Most of you know how this story turns out. Here was a king who, as a boy, conquered a lion, a bear, and a giant, but, as a man, couldn’t overcome his desire for another man’s wife. His failure to “calculate the consequences” led to lying, adultery, murder, death, treachery, and the eventual internal destruction and loss of his family. “...therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house; the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.” (II Samuel 12:10-12). David lived out his life carrying the baggage of his tryst with Bathsheba. He lived with the realization that his sin was directly responsible for many of the calamities that befell him and his family.
Did you know David is mentioned 59 times in the New Testament? You might’ve not known the exact number, but you probably knew it was a whole bunch of times, right? Now of those 59 times, how many times would you reckon include a mention of Bathsheba? If you guessed “zero” you’d be exactly right.
That’s because David was forgiven! “And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin;” (II Samuel 12:13) When the Lord forgave David’s sin, He also forgot David’s sin. Why bring it up again?
Here’s something for us all to think about. Suppose you had a crack at writing the New Testament. When David’s name came up those 59 times, would you feel just the least little bit of inclination to mention Bathsheba? At least once?
My guess is that most of us probably would. While we’re often not so good at the “calculation of consequences” concerning our own actions, we can be very good at remembering the faults and failures of others even after they’ve expressed apology, repentance and received forgiveness.
Christians have to be better than that. A lot better. A whole lot better! It’s not optional. “But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” (Matthew 6:15) Neither can it be gradual. It should be more than a little scary to think of the Lord being as slow to forgive and unwilling to forget as we can be. How much comfort would there be in a promise from the Lord that said: “I’ll forgive, but it’s going to take some time. Oh, and by the way, I’m not ready to forget just yet. Some day maybe, who knows. For now, you should just pray judgment day doesn’t come until I make up my mind.” No irreverence intended, just trying to make a point. Be kinda hard to see much hope of Heaven there, wouldn’t it? But, undeniably, that’s the way we treat others sometimes.
And that’s “an unfortunate lapse in calculation of consequences” that will ultimately remove one’s name from the Book of Life.
“And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” (Matthew 18:34-35 NKJV)
Thanks be to God for His forgiveness...and for His "forgetfulness".
~Teddy Horton
