FORGIVENESS
It was suggested to me that rather than give up something for Lent, I should spend the forty days reading about, meditating on and trying to really comprehend one of the virtues. Forgiveness seemed a natural for me.
For the first few days it was pretty frustrating. Everything was a bumper sticker like , “Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself.” Now bumper stickers are ok. They wouldn’t be bumper stickers if there wasn’t some truth to them. But not very deep.
There were suggestions of action, such as writing everything down and burning it. Sense “release as your words are carried to Heaven”. I actually did that and it helped a little, but I couldn’t figure out who in Heaven would want my ugly words.
But Lent lasts forty days, so I persisted. Gradually seemingly unrelated ideas started to fit together. And it started to make sense. Forgiveness isn’t a life choice, it is life.
The Lord’s prayer says it best. “Forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me.” The “as” in that section is not a conjunction but a conditional. Someday, I will be judged with the exact compassion, mercy and understanding I grant others.
Pretty simple, but not easy.
On the last day, I will supposedly be asked “What have you done for the least in my Kingdom.” So we all think of the starving, homeless and persecuted people we encounter. But I have come to believe the question is much deeper. The “least in my Kingdom” are the very people we are most angry at. The people who betrayed us, discarded us, told us we were not good enough those who have hurt us in the most profound ways. Did we truly forgive them or did we rejoice at their misfortunes? Did we engage in petty little revenges?
Still simple, but getting there.
Twenty days gone, twenty days left. Half way to understanding?
A rich man approaches Christ and asks to follow him. He is told to go and sell all his “stuff” and return. Sadly, the man turns away. It is just too hard. Again we assume this is about I Pods and dishwashers, --- and it is. But it may also be about the emotional goods we hold onto so strongly. To truly be a Christian is to release the things that we hold dearest – our grudges – our hurts- our need to “get even”. Those are the hardest things to give up.
BUT
You cannot serve two masters. To be a follower of Christ you must give up those most cherished hatreds, and see your enemy as they are-- fellow creations of God who are feeling the same hurt, the same rejection, the same fear you are.
Still simple, but nearly impossible to live.
Hence
“Many are called but few are chosen.” I have always thought that last may be a mistranslation. I think it should read, Many are called but few choose. To be a true follower of Christ requires a choice to surrender our human nature and replace it with divine nature, something we are organically unable to do. So, we must follow Christ to the very best of our abilities, with the assurance it is the effort, the desire that matters. We will never fully reach the goal, but it is the journey that matters.
In the end the bumper sticker I fell in love with was
“ Forgiveness is giving up all hope for a better past and using that energy to build a better future.”
So Lent has ended, and I think I have the WHY down. I hope to have the HOW down someday soon.
***** Just a footnote for anyone who stumbles on this and is not Christian. I think the failure here is all mine. I am simply not well enough versed in other beliefs to relate the ideas here in meaningful; ways. But I think the ideas are still valid.

GRAND JURY
So here is one more good reason to not drink and drive. Not only might you wreck your car, injure yourself or kill someone else, you will bore a Grand Jury to death!!
Since each case must be presented as if it were the only case in the world, the Prosecutor must introduce evidence that the suspect was given a field sobriety test, that the officer was qualified to give it, how it was conducted and how the defendant performed. They then must give evidence that a breath test was administered and again, what were the conditions how does the test work, what are the procedures and how did the defendant do.
I am sworn to secrecy about any proceedings that have taken place in the grand Jury room, so blogging about it might call into question how seriously I took all that. But it is safe to say that after the third case, it becomes boring, after the tenth case I began to understand why the windows on the sixth floor do not open. It is not to keep people out, but to keep jurors from leaping before one more Police Officer gets op with his pen and shows how he moves it left to right in front of a suspects eyes.

WE WAS ROBBED!!!!!
No, this was not a bad call in a baseball game, not a spoiled quart of milk, not a faulty new toy, this was a real, honest to goodness, Holy Cow === We was robbed!!!
At about 1:20 we threw our things in the car and went down to the park to meet a teacher and her class to plant in the park. Took about 20 minutes, then we hung around and watered the plants. Maybe another 10 minutes, then home. We had a whole list of afternoon things we were going to do, but when we got home, Kay saw that the desk had been gone through. She grabbed her purse which had been setting on the desk and sure enough the cash was gone. Her camera was also missing. I thought perhaps someone had looked in a window and used the opportunity to grab a free purse, but when I went upstairs, our bedroom had been trashed. All her mother’s jewelry and her own had been stolen. Nothing of great value, but irreplaceable in sentimental value. They had also found some silver dollars, Kennedy half dollars and 2 dollar bills I had been saving for years. Again, no great value, but MINE!!!!
The cretins had continued up the stairs into the attic and gone through a bunch of stuff, finding that our attic was full of --- well, junk.
The Police responded quickly and were probably more upset than we were. A neighborhood canvas was carried out, but fact is people were no more observant than I am.
The “watch” cats are not talking so I don’t know what they know or don’t know, but I will say when they finally showed up, they were pretty freaked out. Big Cat’s eyes were 6 times normal size. Frankie just stood in the middle of the floor and shed.
So now I am in the market for a home security system that works and is impervious to cats.