Forgiveness...

Not everyone is a fan of William Shakespeare’s writing, but I’ll tell you, the man knew a lot about love. I often wonder about the true inspiration behind some of Shakespeare’s sonnets and even some of the characters in his plays.

Like anything, the meaning behind a poem or phrase will be different for everyone, but there’s a certain aspect of Shakespeare’s text that focuses my mind on God. Now, you probably think me daft at this moment, in fact, if you would have told me years ago when I was struggling to understand Julius Caesar in Miss Rife’s 10th grade English class that I would be sitting here typing about how much sense Shakespeare makes, I would have laughed and called you some derivative of crazy. However, here I am, typing just that; Shakespeare makes a lot of sense.

Take for example the following excerpt from Shakespeare’s 116th sonnet:

“Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds or bends with the remover to remove, Oh no, it is an ever fix-ed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken…”

For those of you that are sitting there staring mindlessly at this, I will take a quick moment and paraphrase the above:

“You cannot claim to love someone if there is something out there that could make you stop loving that person. Love is something that is 100% steadfast, guaranteed and can, without a doubt, weather any storm that it placed in its path…”

Or, to break it down even further:

“Unconditional love”.

If you read through the Bible, there are countless occasions where you would think that God would give up on people. The Israelites, God’s chosen people, are a prime example. What an ungrateful, whiney bunch of miscreants! Now, I guess that is a bit judgmental of me, but seriously, they were rotten to the core, or at least there were those among them that were and the others did not have enough sense among them not to be led astray. God had more than enough just cause to turn His back on them, but He loved them and so He forgave them tyme and tyme again.

Then there was King David who had more faith than most and was a true friend to God, but He messed up. He went from a devoted shepherd boy turned king to a liar, murderer and adulterer in the blink of an eye! Just like that he broke three of God’s most sacred commandments, but once again, God forgave. David admitted his sins and begged for forgiveness and God granted it. There were, of course, consequences that he had to deal with, but God was there to see David through because He loved him and that love could not be shaken.

Another phrase that comes to mind as I write on this topic of unconditional love and forgiveness is a quote from the 18th century poet Alexander Pope:

“To err is human, to forgive, divine”
As I’m writing this entry, I am also conversing with one of my dearest friends about certain things that have happened in our lives over the last several years. While we have different view points on some of the happenings and different opinions on certain incidences, we can sit and calmly discuss our thoughts and feelings.

As I listen to what she has to say it occurs to me that Alexander Pope had it right.

“To err is human”…or “Everyone is going to mess up…”,

“To forgive, divine”… or “forgiving someone is something that can only come from God”.

Romans 3:23 says “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”.

So, we come in to this world as sinners, we simply don’t measure up to the ideal that God set. We let Him down on a regular basis, but guess what, He forgives us! He forgave the Israelites, He forgave David, and He forgives all of us when we ask Him to! His ability to forgive us, whether the offense is great or small, comes from His unconditional love for us. He made us and He wants us with Him someday. Through Jesus, He created a way for that to happen. He knows we cannot be perfect and, though He expects us to strive to be as good as we can be, He forgives us when we falter and He loves us no matter what.

As I draw these conclusions I cannot help but wonder why the people we love the most are often the hardest to forgive. It is this question that forces me to ask myself if there is anyone in my life that I need to ask God to help me forgive. Is there someone that deserves or perhaps doesn’t deserve, but is entitled to that unconditional love that God has for me? I encourage you to ask this same question of yourself and upon your response, pray and act accordingly. You’ll be surprised what wonders a little bit of prayer and forgiveness will do!

Blessings,

~LK~