Love Prospers

Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends. Proverbs 17:9

When something prospers, it flourishes. It grows strong and healthy. It is successful. It is beautiful. Which, by definition, means that if something does not flourish, it fails. Like, not just a little unsuccessful or hindered, but complete and utter failure. Love cannot be shown where there is not forgiveness because they are one in the same. Without one, you cannot and will not have the other.

The Maze Runner is one of the few movies that kept me entertained throughout the entire two hours. Seriously, I think I spent more time holding my breath than actually breathing. All of the action, and cheesiness aside, there was one scene that made me more anxious than any of the others.
Just to give you the basics of what you need to know Thomas (right) has been in the Maze for three days, and can't remember anything but his name. Newt (left) has been there for three years. Once Thomas shows up and meets Newt, a lot of people start to die. No one can figure out why until after a series of unfortunate events when Thomas has to inject some blue junk into his body to figure out where he came from. In the mean time, Newt has been working day-in and day-out over the last several years just to allow himself and the others to stay alive. So, not exactly the ideal living situation. Aaaaand, that's where I'll just let you read:

Thomas: Guys, I'm one of them. The people who put you here, I worked with them. I watched you guys for years. The entire time you've been here, I've been on the other side of it. So were you, Theresa. We did this to them.

Theresa: No, it can't be true.

Thomas: It's true. I saw it.

Theresa: Why would [the company] send us here if we were with them?

Thomas: It doesn't matter.

Turns out that Thomas wasn't just a part of the unfortunate events, but he, along with Theresa helped plan them and chose the specific people that would be a part of the Maze that would lead to some of their deaths. So, at this point, Newt now knows that all of his time, pain, work, lack of memory, etc., is because of Thomas and Theresa.
So, he has a couple of ways to respond.

A similar story is found in the first book of the New Testament called Matthew, Chapter 18:

23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt. 26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ 27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.

28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.

29 “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. 30 But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.

31 “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.

35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers from your heart.”

Again, this man could have responded in two ways. One option was to reflect the forgiveness he had been shown by the gracious king to others. Another was to quickly forget how much he had been forgiven by the king and continue to go on holding bitterness and past offenses against people. Not forgiving past offenses only served not only make the people's lives who 'owed him something' more miserable, but also making his life all the more miserable and bitter.

Reading this story, it's easy to think, "Well, any person in their right mind would be more than happy to let go of the offenses and it should be easy" And you'd be right. There's just one problem.

As humans, we have done what is evil in the sight of the King. We have broken a good relationship with God, and because of that, we no longer think out of our 'right mind'.

In the past few months, I have been trying to figure out with how to deal with resentment that grew in me because I needed to forgive someone. I had become frustrated with another person and myself for creating unmet expectations in my heart. The excitement that lied in my anticipation turned to questions which I then allowed to turn to bitterness. By relying on something other than Christ to make me happy, I allowed the enemy to get a foothold in my heart and create fear and anger and thoughts filled with lies. And for a long time, I didn't know how to remedy the daily reminder from the enemy of the bitterness I held.

We are bent toward sin. The only way to transform our minds is looking at the example of Jesus. Psalm 103:10-14 says, "He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquity. For as high as the Heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us."

Uh, what?

So, you mean that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us? (Romans 5:8) And we have to replicate his example if we've chosen to call Him our Lord and Savior? And no matter the extent of the wrong that someone has done, we have to show them Christ's love and forgiveness in everything we do? 

Actually, yes. That's exactly what I'm saying.

One of the greatest and hardest things about following Jesus is asking for forgiveness. Forgiveness is humbling by its nature. To tell someone we've willingly or unknowingly done wrong to them is not exactly something we enjoy doing.

Giving forgiveness is another thing. When you forgive someone, you're telling them that they no longer owe you anything. Even though they've done wrong, or caused you pain, emotionally, verbally, or even physically.

Now, back to The Maze Runner. Here's how the conversation ends for Thomas and Theresa, fully expecting any and all punishment they deserve for putting their new friends through such agony over the past few years.

Newt: He's right. It doesn't matter. Because the people we were before the Maze? They don't exist anymore. These creators took care of that. What does matter is who we are now and what we do now. You went into the Maze and found a way out. Pick yourself up and finish what you started. Because if we do nothing, that means our friends died for nothing, and I can't have that.

The person you were before you knew Jesus doesn't exist anymore. What matters is who you are now and what you do with the forgiveness you've been shown. God gave you a way out of your broken state and has now allowed us to be a part of what He has started in redeeming others. If we do nothing, and continue to live in our selfish inclinations, it means Christ's death means nothing to us.

If you already know Jesus, it should not only be easy, but it should be a joy to forgive those around you. Please don't hear me say I've got this down. I'm learning too. But we are called to forgive not just a few times, but more than we can count. We have got to bear with one another and forgive just as we have been forgiven (Colossians 3:13, Matthew 6:14-15). As a disciple of Jesus, you have been rescued from death to life. In Jesus we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1). Put away self-righteousness and remember that it is only through Christ that we are acceptable to stand before our King at the end of time. 

If you don't already know Jesus, I encourage you to see for yourself. There's no catch in asking for His forgiveness that He doesn't clearly lay out in the cost of choosing to follow Him.  He is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against Him (Daniel 9:9). But, we must turn from our old life to accept the new, one that He has offered, even in our current state found in the forgiveness shown through Jesus dying and rising again.

Since I have begun to hand my expectations over to the Lordship of Christ, He reminds me daily of how worthy He is to be praised. And the way I can praise Him is by following His example in forgiving others like He has forgiven me. I can trust that no matter how little or big the wrong is that someone has done to me, I will see the goodness of the Lord for the rest of my life and the rest of eternity, in the land of the living.

Love keeps no record of wrongs. We must continually forgive, because when we forgive faults, of our own and others, it is then that love prospers.


*Shoutout to a couple of my great friends, Deanna and Whittany for making sure I got to verbally process this before I left America, and then gave me so much truth and wisdom about the forgiveness that needed to take place. If you don't have heart friends like them, you're wrong.