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When we forgive,
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share thisOur high school band performed just about every weekend from summer through fall, playing at everything from drum and bugle corps competitions to high school, semipro and professional football games. We would often emerge from the yellow school buses and into the diesel-scented air late at night.
There were about 12 kids from my neighborhood in the band, so we would usually split up into groups and walk 5 or so blocks from the high school home. Although it was early in a new day, the strolls home were just as routine as the walk to and from school in daylight.
Then one cool autumn night, something out the ordinary occurred. Three of us were walking alongside a laundromat near the town's main street when a car rounded the corner, stopped and disgorged a decidedly unfriendly passenger.
The guy had to be 4 or 5 years older than we were and bigger than the biggest of our group. He punched one of the guys in our group in the stomach. Luckily, our friend was wearing one of those imitation leather coats so it was like punching a catcher's chest protector.
It was one of the moments where you thought, "Where is a cop when you need one?" Before the thought was thought, a police cruiser came around the corner. The largest officer on the force emerged and quickly figured out what was going on.
In a moment, the cop had the attacker's arms pinned behind him and the officer told my friend to take a swing at the attacker's stomach. (An eye for an eye; a belly for a belly.)
My friend declined the offer and forgave the assaulter. Police let the attacker go with a warning, and the police cruiser and suspect's car left the scene. We had not walked another block when the attacker's car pulled around the corner and stopped by us. Now what?
The atmosphere was tense when the guy got out of his car and approached my friend. This time the hand he extended was not in a fist. He shook hands with my fellow band member and thanked him for not getting him in trouble with the police.
The incident was not a parable like those Jesus used to teach his disciples, yet it did have a moral. It is not easy to turn the other cheek and to forgive those who try to hurt us. However, if we do that for God's sake it can change our lives and the lives which touch ours.
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When we forgive,
God will not forget.
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