January 13, 2009
Sorry
It seems to me that asking forgiveness, when practiced, is mainly done amongst fellow believers. When we sin against unbelievers or strangers, our tendency is simply to just apologize. In Scripture we don’t hear Jesus saying, ‘And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, apologize to him, so that your Father in heaven may accept your apology for your sins.’ Or, ‘This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you apologize to your brother from your heart.’ Other than God, when was the last time you asked someone to forgive you?
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Gail;
-----Sometimes this idea of asking forgiveness bothers me, too. When I apologize for something I’ve done wrong, I don’t usually ask to be forgiven. It isn’t that I don’t think forgiveness is important. I know it is imperative. It isn’t that I believe it is implied with the apology. It is just that I don’t think about it. The few times I do ask specifically for forgiveness, I feel clumsy and out of sorts. But when I pray, it is always, “Forgive me…forgive me…forgive me.” The concept is not lost to my mind, so if the clumsiness comes to me from the lack of familiarity, it would only be in the lack of my directing the plea to another person beside me rather than to God above me.
-----So I wonder if subtly inside me there is a sense that forgiveness is for the asking from one above, and not from someone at my side. To ask it from someone beside me might elevate them and lower me. That’s not a nice feeling, although it has a Biblical flavor. I think being forgiven has a definite connection to humility. It recognizes a place where you are at the mercy of another. Whereas a simple, “I’m sorry” dips into humility only deep enough to admit a wrong; it does not dip deep enough to recognize a subjection. “I’m sorry” acknowledges a shift in direction, but “forgive me” acknowledges a debt.
-----American culture has been very much about the individual, and about being beside each other. “Forgive me” has not been one of her promoted expressions. “I’m sorry” fits well amongst individuals beside each other, but the acknowledgment of debt and subjection just seems to wrinkle her fabric.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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