It's time to forgive....

There is a saying when you attend a Cursillo Weekend, and that is what happens at Cursillo stays at Cursillo. That mainly has to do with the super-secret tattoo that you get on the last day, but it also has to do with the fact that the weekend is very difficult to explain because it is different for every person. But one part of the weekend that really stood out for me was one night during chapel. During this particular visit we were all sitting around and the Spiritual Director told us a story that I think everyone can relate to. He told the parable of the prodigal son.

I will assume that most of you have heard this story so I will just paraphrase…

A man has two sons, the younger of the two wants his inheritance now before his father dies so he can go spend it now, proof that the “I want it now” phase started long before my generation. So the father being the good father that he was gives his son his inheritance early and boom, off the son goes to live his life. So he is off to the Las Vegas of the time, and starts living the lavish lifestyle.

Now time passes and eventually the son had more party than money in him, and he finds himself broke. So the son decides that he needs a job, but all he can get is a job as a swineherd, an extremely unclean and looked down upon job as you could probably imagine. So here is the son doing his job, and feeling sorry for himself and finally decides it is time to go home. You know you have hit rock bottom when you start envying pigs.

The son packs up his things and heads back home. But, on his way home he does that thing that all kids have done when headed home to face the music. He starts rehearsing in his head what he is going to say when he sees the folks.

“See Dad what had happened was……”“Dad I didn't mean to spend all the money on………”

He worked really hard on the speech, but he doesn't get to even say it, because his father had been waiting every day at the edge of the fence for his son to return. As soon as he sees his son he calls for the finest robes, rings, sandals, and to kill the “fatted calf” for a feast. The party is back on folks.

Alright, so here they are having a party to celebrate the return of Junior, and older brother is out in the fields and hears Willie Nelson (Willie was probably in his early 20’s at the time) playing on the stage. Now the older brother asks what is going on to one of the party goers, and he is told that his brother had returned. Now the older brother read on his twitter feed about how his brother lost his fortune, and he wasn't really impressed with the party, he was more into KISS. He was even a little mad, and if you remember back in those days if your brother is mad at you bad things can happen. We all remember what happened with the loving brothers of Kane and Able, and poor Joseph didn't stand a chance either.

Dad seeing the escalation and knowing how badly it could end went to his older son and tried to talk to him. The older son looks at his old man and says “Look how long I have worked for you and I don’t get nothing, I don’t cause problems, I don’t spend your money, I never bring my hooligan friends over. And I don’t ever get a party. But Junior comes home and you throw him a party for spending all of your money, he should have invested it in a 401k”

The father just looks at his older son, uses that wisdom you know all fathers develop over a lifetime, and tells his older son. “We hang out all the time, but your brother was basically dead, but now he is alive, he once was lost, but now he is found.”

How many of you can relate to the younger son?How many of you can relate to the older son?How many of you can relate to the father? “Dang knuckle headed kids won’t stop screwing up and fighting with each other…..”

This story teaches us about a fathers’ forgiveness of his knuckle headed kids. But the key word is forgiveness. God understands that we make mistakes. That we lose our way, and he forgives us like this father forgave his son, who lost his way.

Now you could be saying to yourself, “Self there’s no way my parents will forgive me, I can’t forgive my neighbor, my spouse, my brother for what they did. There is no way Jesus will forgive me for what I have done.”

But our God is a forgiving God. That is what he wants to do. He wants you to live for him, no matter how many mistakes you made in the past, no matter what you think you have done not to deserve His love, He wants to love you. He wants to forgive you.

I have a friend that like the prodigal son lost his way at one point in time. He was mixed up with the wrong ground, getting into all sorts of trouble. He and I were sitting down and talking one day and I asked him what made him change. He told me that he did believe that anything would be able to help him, he did think anyone would forgive him. He had what he called a dark night of the soul. He lost his way for a while but he found God and everything started to change for him.

My friend decided that he couldn't just forgive himself, he had to ask for forgiveness from God and keep the promises he made to Him. Well God not only forgave him but God truly blessed him. My friend now has a beautiful family and a loving wife. But my friend took it one step further, my friend said "You forgave me and blessed me lord, now it's time for me to return the favor." Shortly after he finished his tour in Vietnam he answered a call that he thought he was having. My friend became a minister and led God people for close to 30 years. I would say that the Lord forgave him for losing his way.

At the last supper Jesus looked over to Peter and said “You my friend are going to deny me three times.”What did Peter say? Just like a little kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar… “Nu Uhhh. I’m not going to deny you. We are friends, BFF’s, besties, I would never deny you.”

What happened next? Peter denied Jesus three times. Then, we all know the story Jesus was crucified, died and was buried. Then he was resurrected. His mother, and Mary Magdalene were the first to make the discovery, and the creepy looking glowing guy in the tomb said to tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus had gone on to Galilee.

So they run off and tell everyone and tell Peter, who was checking his Facebook news feed and seeing all the tribute posts to Judas’ page after he committed suicide because he betrayed Jesus. This brought thoughts in to Peter’s mind about his own betrayal. He was probably doing what the Prodigal son was doing and started working on the speech of his life.

“See Lord what had happened was…..”

But then Peter gets the message that Jesus will see him now. I am sure that there are several outcomes running through Peters head at this moment and none of them probably end with them getting happyhour after work together. It was probably more along the lines of “See I told you so?” Or maybe “You lied to me, and I went and told Dad, now you are going to get it?”

But Jesus didn't say any of that. John 21:15-17 tells us the story. Jesus simply asked, “Peter do you love me?” Three times he asked this and three times Peter tells Jesus “Yes Lord, I do love you.”
Jesus then doesn't ask, “Then why did you deny me?” He simply states “Feed my sheep.” Jesus pushed that forgiveness further. He said not only do I forgive you but I have bigger plans for you. Jesus said “go out and tell the world I exist, I am real. And I say I forgive you.”

Now Peter had to keep that forgiveness going. He couldn't just breathe a sigh of relief and if asked about Jesus again say “Who?” And that is what is expected of us as well.


We don’t have to drop everything we are doing pick out 11 of our closest friends and set out on a quest to tell everyone about the grace of God, but we do need to live our lives for God. Dedicate ourselves to doing the best we can for Him, in His name. We need to be able to forgive others the way that He forgives us.

If you haven’t read my story of why I am here you can go back and take a look at it here really quickly …  http://myspiritualdesperation.blogspot.com/2014/02/let-me-introduce-myself.html

I myself, just like my friend, was like the Prodigal Son. I lost my way and wasn't sure if I could even come back to my family or Christ. I made the journey coming back with my tail between my legs because I thought I had thought I failed. I thought I had let my whole family down. In the back of my mind I knew they would take me back, but I was still nervous on the trip back home. I was the son practicing what I was going to say when I got back home.


Now when I got home my folks didn't throw a party for me, but they did forgive me, and that really helped with the healing process that I had to go through. And believe me there was a lot of healing that needed to happen.


But before that could happen completely I needed to not only be forgiven, but also to forgive. I had been hurt very badly along the way. I held a great deal of anger for my ex-wife, and even a great deal of anger for God. I blamed him for my loss.


I had to let that go. I had to forgive. Only in that forgiveness of God, could I truly accept his forgiveness of me.

I’m going to end this week with a quick prayer.

Lord thank you for the promise of your forgiveness. I know I don’t always do the right thing, say the right thing, or act the right way. I am only human Lord and it is hard for me sometimes. I am truly thankful though that you are a forgiving God, an understanding God. I ask that you please continue to bless me with your forgiveness, as I continue to try and live in your light, and continue on my path of knowing you better. AmenThank you guys for reading my post, it is a blessing for me to be able to post this and hopefully touch one of your lives. Please feel free to pass this along to anyone you feel may need it in their life. Also if you have a story about how God has blessed you or touched you I would love to hear it, please feel free to email me at any time.

I am proud to say that in the coming weeks I am going to have a truly awesome friend writing as well. I met this young woman a couple of years ago and we have gotten to become great friends. She has her own blog I will let her tell you about, but she has agreed to come on My Spiritual Desperation and do some posting as well.

If you would like to know what we are up to please like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/MySpiritualDesperation.

Have a great week guys, and look forward to hearing from you.