The "F-Word"

Sunday, March 9, 2014

          If you do any texting you’re probably aware of the way phrases are shortened. We have LOL for laugh out loud; IMHO for in my humble opinion; K for OK (the letters O and K are apparently too long to type); TTFN for ta-ta for now. And then there’s this one: WTF!

          I got to use this phrase just a few days ago. I was speaking with Unity Worldwide Ministries inquiring about the process for signing up just to come to the business meeting.

          “Well, the business meeting is part of the Annual Convention, so signing up for the convention includes the business meeting.” ($450.00)

          “I understand that but I only want to come for the business meeting, not the convention. My intention is to drive into town, spend a night, attend the meeting and drive home.”

          “OK, in that case we have a smaller convention package that includes admittance to the Assessment Discussion and the Annual Meeting. That’s $200.00”

          A little surprised and a lot frustrated, I politely ended the call and said to myself WTF!

          A few years ago, maybe two or three minutes before I was to begin a wedding ceremony, one of the members of the wedding party got right in my face and started shouting at me.

Caught unawares by this, I took a minute after the encounter to sit down and I thought, WTF!         

Have you ever had that experience where you go to anger over something, or you get blasted unexpectedly by someone and you say to yourself, WTF!

Yeah, that’s right, I use the F-word. I’ll come right out and say it. I don’t just abbreviate it; I actually say it, “Work That Forgiveness!”

(What, you thought it was something else?)

The fundamental tactic that’s taught in A Course in Miracles as the path to peace is forgiveness.

Jesus, in LUKE 5:17-26, there is the story of “Jesus healing the paralytic.” In the story, the friends of the man take him to see Jesus, and the crowd is too packed into the building where Jesus is speaking. There is no more room. So these friends do what any loyal set of friends would do; the carry the man onto the roof, take the roof apart – make a hole in the roof, and lower the man into the building to Jesus.

Imagine it as if it were happening right now. You’re in this room and it’s filled to capacity, and by capacity I mean like a big city subway car at rush hour, so many people squeezed in you can barely catch your breath. Then, all of a sudden the ceiling starts to fall down upon us because a handful of friends really, really wanted their paralyzed friend to be in here.

There’s a metaphor for the kind of intensity we need to have in our willingness to be exposed to, experience, the truth. In other words we will do whatever it takes; we’ll be vigilant to get to where we need to be for healing.

So what does Jesus do?  Make a big scene of it? (What I’m going for here is a Hollywood style tent revival kind of thing) No! Luke 5:20 reads, “When he saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”

Simple and straight to the point (and because of the faith present), “…friend, your sins are forgiven you.”

Doubts and objections are raised by the Scribes and the Pharisee’s, the authoritative guardians of the word as they thought of themselves.

Have you ever had a glimpse of the truth only to be shouted down by the seeming authoritative voice inside that says, “You can’t do that?”

The concept of authority is important in this story.  Let’s read the rest of it: “Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, “Who is this who is speaking blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” ²² When Jesus perceived their questionings, he answered them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? ²³ Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and walk’? ²⁴ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the one who was paralyzed—“I say to you, stand up and take your bed and go to your home.” ²⁵ Immediately he stood up before them, took what he had been lying on, and went to his home, glorifying God.”

Do you think that only God can forgive what we traditionally have thought of as sin?

Take another look.

Jesus uses the F-word where you’re concerned. He says that you have the authority to forgive… on earth. Right here, right now, on earth; not in some distant time or place, not when you’re “good enough,” and certainly not in heaven; the idea of sin doesn’t exist in heaven, so neither does forgiveness. You have the authority to forgive right here right now.

Have you ever said, “I just can’t forgive him (or her)?”  Well, yes you can, Jesus just said so.

Forgiveness is a powerful healer. Before I tell you another story consider this: Charles Fillmore (co-founder of Unity) in his wisdom made this very powerful statement, “It is through forgiveness that true spiritual healing is accomplished. Forgiveness removes the errors of the mind and… harmony results in consonance with divine law.”

I would say the errors of the mind that forgiveness removes is the idea that someone else, or yourself, is somehow “less than” as a person.

This week I received a pamphlet in the mail titled, “The Freedom of Forgiveness.” In it is a story written by Tom Baker, a former Catholic priest.

Baker writes that he and his father were very different. He a vocal believer, his dad a vocal atheist. Baker an optimist, dad a pessimist.

There was tension between them that turned to ice once Tom was ordained a Catholic priest. At that point they barely spoke.

About a year into his priesthood Tom’s father began to attend church sporadically, always sitting up front.  He writes that he would see his father nod his head in agreement when Tom said something positive about God.

“As a priest you get to know people as they are,” Baker writes, “You visit them when they’re sick, you hear their confessions, you listen to their prayers, you know their secrets. The effect this had on me was to open my heart to the struggle we all have being human – and there was my father, another struggling human. My dad started to be a person in my mind rather than a disappointment.”

Soon afterwards Baker’s parents announce to him that they are going to become Catholics. “I was shocked and asked my father if he had started believing in God. And he laughed and said, "Heavens no, I haven’t started believing in God! I believe in you…”"

“…I heard his respect and warmth and trust…At that moment I chose that he be a person to me…”

“Most of my life I was a person and he was a role that he was playing in a way not to my liking. When he said he believed in me it broke open my heart and I let him be a person.”

This is forgiveness.

 “Forgiveness is not for other people, it is for ourselves so we can get well and heal.” (Max Lucado)

Forgiveness is an act of radical self-interest.

If you have a struggle with another person, or yourself, please always remember that you have the authority to forgive. You have the authority to see another person as a person and thus begin your healing and wellness.

One of the things forgiveness can do is make you feel better. So if you have a struggle with another person or yourself, drop an F-Bomb. Shower them, and yourself, with the healing power of forgiveness.