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Movie Clip on Forgiveness

No Fishing

LL Cool J and Forgiveness

At 9 years old, LL Cool J began writing rap lyrics. At 13, he made his debut at a club and began sending tapes to record labels.  At 16 he released a single and appeared in a movie as an extra.  When he eventually made the charts and the money, you'd have thought that he would have been happy, experiencing every boy's greatest dream.  But he wasn't.  You see, at 4 years old, his mom had left his dad, tired of his beatings.  Later, the father shot his mother and grandmother.  But I suppose everyone longs for a dad, even if he has been a creep.  So when his dad came back and offered to manage his career, he said yes.  But his dad messed up some of his contracts, to the tune of millions of dollars, while leaving him $2,000,000 in debt to the IRS.  And all this at a time that his career took a nose dive.  With all this rejection, it's no wonder that he grew up as a destructive kid, carrying a gun at one time, and considered a wild man by some. 
But today he's back on top, producing albums on his own label, starring in movies and putting his destructive behavior behind him.  What made the change?  In his own words, although everything had fallen apart, and the people around him had scattered, these tragedies "encouraged me to get my life together.  Destructive behavior and a lack of focus will cause you to neglect yourself and spread yourself too thin.  You lose your priorities - namely, yourself, your spirit, God and your family.  I learned to focus on my children and loving my family....  I can't make sure my family is okay if I'm concentrating on the pain of the past.  I just had to forgive and get on with my life.  Now I feel like I'm a winner.  I've become the father I always wanted."  So LL Cool J dealt with his past.  He could have wallowed in self pity and regrets, but instead he forgave and moved forward. Rather than use the hurts of his past to justify living wild today, he recently opened Camp Cool J, to help others who are hurting from teen pregnancy, AIDS, and drug abuse.  He's also starting a homeless shelter and soup kitchen.  But what about us?  Don't we all have those disappointments from the past that still haunt us?  Why not follow Cool J's example in forgiving those who hurt us, and moving forward to helping other unfortunate people along the way. (Information taken from "Only You Can Make Your Life Better, by Gail Buchalter, in Parade Magazine, Aug. 23, 98, pp. 12,13)   ? Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved

Hearts Haunted by the Past

Forgiveness and Former Totalitarian Leader

Do you have trouble forgiving those who have harmed not only yourself, but also your family?  Then you know the feelings that East German pastor Uwe Holmer must have faced when asked if he would help Erich Honecker, the former despised leader of East Germany?s totalitarian regime. At seventy-seven-years-old, Honecker had been declared too sick for prison and relieved of standing trial for treason. But the State refused to give he and his wife a place to live.  So pastor Holmer was asked if he could provide housing for the homeless couple.
To understand what was being asked of pastor Holmer, you must try hard to share his bitter memories.  You see, while Honecker and other communist leaders basked in their power and privilege, Christians like pastor Holmer and his family spent what could have been the best years of their lives suffering under the repressive regime.  How could he forget Honecker?s active part in building the wall that no only divided his family, but prevented him from attending his own father?s funeral?  And then there was Honecker?s wife, who had ruthlessly run the State?s Ministry of Education.  Pastor Holmer?s ten children were denied admission to any university, not because of low grades or misconduct, but simply because they refused to swear allegiance to the Communist Party. So, put yourselves in pastor Holmer?s shoes.  Would you have given this man a place to live?  If you were honest, many of you would have said, ?Serves you right, you creep.  Now you get to reap what you?ve been sowing all these years.?
But instead of getting even, Holmer put himself in Honecker?s shoes, asking himself what it must be like to plummet from power to helplessness, from privilege to poverty.  He also reflected on his Christian duty.  Wasn?t Honecker now one of the poor, sick and homeless individuals that Jesus urged His followers to care for?  Yes.  But the church?s retirement home already had a waiting list, and it wouldn?t be fair to put Honecker on the front of the list.  So he did what to many would be unthinkable.  He invited the old couple to share their own home.  As they entered, pastor Holmer cordially greeted them:  ?Welcome to my home.  I know you have come here to convalesce and to rest, and I hope you will find the quiet and peace you need here.?  
So now Pastor Holmer had acted in forgiveness.  But he found that feeling the forgiveness was often a different matter.  Imagine seeing the Honecker?s in your home, often sitting or standing next to pictures of the precious children they had oppressed.  But as the bitterness would continue to rise up inside of him, he reflected on the price Jesus paid to forgive his own sins.  In understanding God?s forgiveness, he was able to forgive the Honeckers.  
But as you can imagine, many people, even within his own church, violently disagreed with his attitude and actions.  Some threatened to leave their church.  Others considered withholding their money.  Hate mail poured in, and then came bomb threats.  But the Holmer?s stood firm.  He responded publically by letter through an East German newspaper.  In part, he wrote:  ?We have been commanded by our Lord Jesus to follow him and to receive all those who are weary and heavy-laden, in spirit and in body, but especially the homeless.  We also felt compelled to act as we did because of Jesus?s example in visiting Zacchaeus, the tax collector, his commandment to love our enemies, and his instructions that we pray: ?Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.? We are convinced that what Jesus asked his disciples to do is equally binding on us.? (From Revolution By Candlelight, by Bultman.)

Corrie Forgives

Corrie ten Boom miraculously survived Ravensbruck, one of Hitler?s death camps.  After the war, she started a home in Holland to help people recover from the trauma inflicted upon them by the Nazis.  What she found was that those who were willing to forgive their tormentors could go on to rebuild their lives.  But those who refused to forgive, hanging onto their bitterness, remained emotionally crippled.

At a speaking engagement in Munich, Corrie was challenged to apply her own teaching on a new level.  After the service, her blood ran cold as she recognized a man walking toward her.  He was one of her former guards from Ravensbrook ? and not just any guard, but one of the cruelest guards.  Suddenly, the horrid memories flooded her mind.  ?You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk,? he said, ?I was a guard there.? Corrie realized that he didn?t remember her, only one of the thousands of prisoners.  "But since that time I have become a Christian.  I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear from your lips as well.  Fraulein,? and he put out his hand, ?will you forgive me??

Corrie just stood there, as she put it, with a ?coldness clutching my heart.?  But she knew that forgiveness was an act of the will, not just of the heart.  So she silently called out for Jesus? help, and prayed, ?I can lift my hand.  I can do that much.  You supply the feeling.?

?And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me.  And as I did, an incredible thing took place.  The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands.  And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bring tears to my eyes."

?I forgive you, brother,? I cried.  ?With all my  heart.?

?For a long moment we grasped each other?s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner.  I had never known God?s love so intensely, as I did then.  But even so, I realized it was not my love.  I had tried, and did not have the power.  It was the power of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Romans 5:5, ??because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.? (Corrie ten Boom, Tramp for the Lord (Old Tappan, N.J.:  Revell, 1976), pp. 53-55.

Biehls Forgive

In South Africa, four black students attended a radical political rally that condemned all white people as their enemies. After all, whites had taken their land, oppressed them and taken away their rights for years. The rally referred to all whites as ?settlers?and cried, ?One settler, one bullet.? That evening the four students spotted a young white girl named Amy Biehl who was driving some black students home in their township. Someone threw a brick through her windshield. She tried to run, but the students caught her, beat her with stones, and stabbed her until she died.

The irony of this hate crime was that if they had only known her, they would have loved her. Little did they know that Amy?s life was dedicated to fighting for their cause. You see, Amy Biehl was an American exchange student who was inspired as a high school student by the imprisoned black South African leader Nelson Mandela. She never lost the vision of helping South African blacks. At the bottom of her letters she would write, ?FREE MANDELA!? She wrote ?FREE MANDALA!? on her graduation cap for all attending Stanford University?s graduation to see. A Fulbright scholarship allowed her to study in South Africa, befriend blacks, and organize voter education in black communities to ready them for the upcoming free elections.

Those who knew her loved her. She was funny, outgoing, and friendly. She had about completed her work and was ready to leave the country in two days. But her dreams were cut short by four of the very people she had dedicated her life to help.  They killed one of the best friends they could have ever had. She came to fight racism, but died for the color of her skin. Her attackers never took the time to find out who lived inside of that white skin. And beyond killing her, they also killed something inside those who loved her: her many black and white friends, her mom, dad, brother, sister, and a boyfriend who was ready to propose to her when she returned home. (Sources: Dave Dorr; Of The Post-Dispatch Staff, IN THE STEPS OF A SLAIN SCHOLAR. , St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 09-09-1997, pp 03D; DON KLADSTRUP, DIANE SAWYER, INSIDE THE STRUGGLE. , ABC Turning Point, 08-07-1997.)But the story doesn?t end at her death. Her parents, Peter and Linda, could have carried on the chain of racism by seething with hatred for the blacks who killed their daughter. Instead, they did the unthinkable. They forgave the killers. They visited the killers? parents, identified with their pain, and hugged them. And they refused to get bitter when the killers were released after only four years. Rather, they went beyond forgiveness to set up a foundation in South Africa that continues their daughter?s work in the very area where she was murdered. They spend more time there than in America these days. They train students to bake bread and help them set up their own businesses. They provide art, music and welding classes as well as tutorials for students wanting to get into college. Thousands of lives are being touched. Why? Because Peter and Linda Biehl stopped the chain. They were willing to forgive. According to Peter, ?It?s liberating to forgive. We can sleep at night and we can feel totally at ease. You can?t do that if you?re harboring hate or anger?.? Of their work in South Africa he says, ?It just absolutely sets me free.? (Sources: 1. Andrew M. Greeley, Commentary // Parents of Amy Biehl find `it's liberating to forgive'. , Minneapolis Star Tribune, 08-16-1997, pp 07B. 2. Amy's Story, CBS ( 60 Minutes (CBS) ) Lesley Stahl; 01-18-1999)

Do you need to be set free? The choice is in your hands. Do you want to live in bondage to your anger and prejudices? Or, do you want to be set free? Jesus set the pace by forgiving those who tortured Him to death on the cross. Will you follow His example? Come on. Break the chain.
? Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved

Died Because Refused to Forgive

Four Years Wasted Hating

Getting the Last Word

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