Dad is here…

Today I drove to San Francisco International Airport and picked up my father, who flew in from Atlanta. He is staying with us for the next three weeks. It’s good to have him here. I have never shared this on the blog…but the early part of my life, my father and I didn’t get along. In fact there was an eight year period in which we didn’t talk. But later in life through Christ we where able in mend our hearts and build a relationship.

It’s amazing how ‘forgiveness’ is so powerful in our lives. It starts with Christ…we forgive because Christ forgives us. The power of forgiveness is underestimated in our culture…the need to forgive and the need for forgiveness. For many years I carried the burden of ‘hating’ my father. I blamed him for all that had gone wrong in my life, later in life I stood face to face with him and he asked me to forgive him for what he had done.

I remember at first being shocked, and the same time relieved. It was a freeing experience that opened the door to a deeper relationship with God and my father. People ask me where are the ‘miracles’ pastor…how about the miracles of healing relationships, mending broken hearts and taking the burden of carrying the ‘unforgiving’.

I hope, if you’re reading this and God has tugged at your heart about someone you haven’t forgiven…that you would ask the Lord to help you forgive that person. No matter who the person is or what they have done…God can help you forgive. I’m speaking from experience; I have had to forgive some people in my life, whom many would consider ‘unforgivable’. But how am I the ‘chief’ of sinner, whom God forgave of all my sin…how can I not forgive those who have wronged me.

-ps