|
About Jesus Steve Sweetman Am
I Sorry? In
the rush to push his way to the front of the room, Sam knocks the cell
phone out of a colleague's hand. Without
stopping he says a quick "sorry" and continues pushing his way
to the front row. The colleague asks, "you're really sorry"?
Cameras
flash. New fangled mp3
recorders are set to record. The
president enters the press room of the White House followed by two
attorneys. He steps to the
podium. "Good morning. I'll
answer your questions as honestly as I can, so let's get started". Hands
rise. Voices shout over top
of each other. "Mr. president, Mr. president…" "Mr.
president, Jackie - CNN news. How
damaging will this be to your administration"? "I'll
survive Jackie. You can
count on that". Mr.
president, Jim - NBC news. Will you fire the secretary of state"? "Can't
comment on the secretary of state Jim". "Mr.
president, Sam – ABC news.
When were you aware of the situation?
"Let's
just say I've been aware of it for a while now Sam.
Next question". "Follow-up
question sir. Will the
secretary of state take the fall for you"? "Enough
of that Sam. I'm not
commenting on the secretary of state.
Next question". Sam
attempts another follow-up. "That's
it for you Sam. How about
Lorry". "Thank
you sir. Lorry -
InTheNews.com. I have two
sources saying you were involved. Were
you sir?" The
attorney to the left of the president approaches the podium, leans over
and whispers into the president's ear. "That's
all folks", says the president as he abruptly leaves Questions
fly from all directions. "What
did you know? Were you
involved? Who's responsible?
Who'll be the fall guy"?
Sam
shakes his head in amazement. "Why
am I so surprised? I've gone
through this nonsense before ". Sam
heads back to his hotel room after spending an
hour with some friends at a bar two blocks from the White House.
He places his Blackberry on the nightstand and notices an open
Gideon Bible. The first
words he reads are, "the heavens will expose his guilt"' (Job
20:27) "Interesting",
Sam thinks. "Someone
better expose the president's guilt".
In
his early days as a reporter for ABC, Sam asked President Nixon all the
why, when, and where's, and got the same old non-answers in return.
The same with Clinton and all the others on Capital Hill.
"No one admits guilt till he's trapped in a corner and has no way
to escape", thinks Sam. "It's
human nature. We blame
everyone but ourselves. It's
called self preservation. Adam
blamed Eve. Eve blamed the
snake. The snake probably
blamed God for creating him with the potential to deceive. In
the end, it's all God's fault".
The
reference to Adam, Eve, and God, doesn't mean Sam knows a lot about
Biblical issues, because like most media types, he knows nothing about
the Bible. Sam flops down on
the bed, kicks off his shoes, and picks up the remote.
The TV lightens up to a Christian channel.
"Some Jesus freak is messing with my head", Sam
mutters. "There's the
open Bible and now this religious channel".
"It's
inevitable", says the religious guy on TV.
"People will offend one another. That's
our fallen nature. That's
what I believe Jesus was saying in Matthew 18:7 in the KJV.
So what should we do about our offenses"?
"How
about deflect them elsewhere and leave the room", Sam thinks as he
adjusts his head on the pillow. "Look
at Hosea 5:15", says the religious guy on TV.
"It reads. 'I
(Yahweh) will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they
will seek my face; in their misery, they will earnestly seek me'.
Here are the facts. Israelis
offended their God. God went
back to His place until they would earnestly admit their guilt to the
God they offended. Israel's offenses damaged her relationship
with God. Our offenses
damage our relationships with those we offend, and, until we earnestly,
and I do mean earnestly, admit our guilt, the relationship remains
damaged. Time doesn't heal
the damage. It only covers
it with dust. When the next
wind storm hits the relationship, the dust is blown away, exposing the
damage like an open sore, ready for another infectious offense".
"Sounds
logical", thinks Sam as he recalls the meaningless
"sorry" he spoke to his colleague when he knocked the cell
phone out of his hand. "The
earnestly spoken, 'I admit my guilt - I am sorry', is
hard for most of us to say. Those
words don't come natural in our state of fallen selfishness", says
the religious guy. Sam
asks himself. "How can
we admit our guilt, say 'I am sorry', and really mean it"? As
if the religious guy heard Sam's question, he says,
"the secret to honestly admitting guilt is to love the one
we offend as much as we love ourselves.
Self preservation, a product of our sin, keeps us from an honest
admission of guilt. Instead
of admitting guilt, we laugh it off, change the subject, deflect the
criticism, or simply say a quick 'sorry' in hopes of ending the
conversation". "Sounds
like Nixon and Clinton", thinks Sam. The
religious guy continues. "If
we really love the one we offend, we'll feel bad when we realize our
offense brought hurt. We'll
then let down our guard, throw off our defensiveness, and say, 'I admit
my guilt – I am sorry. Please
forgive me'". "Forgive
me? Haven't heard those
words lately", thinks Sam as he reaches for another sip of rye and
coke. The
religious guy concludes. "It's
not hard to figure out. We
offend, and I'm speaking of a real offense, not a perceived offense.
Someone gets hurt. Damage
is done to the relationship. We
love the offended one and feel bad.
We then admit our guilt. We
say "I am sorry, please forgive me.
Then, and this is important, the offended one says, 'you are
forgiven'. Without the heart
felt words, 'you are forgiven', there is no forgiveness.
The damage remains, and the cycle continues". "Wow,
this religious stuff make some sense", thinks Sam. "I wonder.
If we can't honestly say 'I am sorry – I admit my guilt', can
we honestly say 'I love you'"?
|