Deadly Viper Character Assassins<\/a>. From p. 51-57 he (and co-writer Jud Wilhite) talks about the Precedent of Grace. Here is the portion that I couldn\u2019t shake from my head for the last week:<\/p>\n\u201cA new model of belonging, respect, and grace is needed to move from a culture of concealment at work to a culture of honesty. We must hold high the values of forgiveness and second chances. What are your secrets that you are afraid might come out? Is it better to live in fear or freedom?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\nIf there is one thing that I really make a concerted effort on, it\u2019s being totally transparent at all times\u2014if anything, pretty much every single person closest to me continues to tell me that I\u2019m too transparent and need to stop pouring my guts out to every stranger or media person I come in contact with. Good or bad, that\u2019s just not me because no matter who I talk to, no matter what the other person\u2019s intentions are, I roll with full disclosure. But the part of Mike\u2019s words that really hit me was the last question: \u201cis it better to live in fear or freedom.\u201d Over the past week \u201cFreedom. Freedom. Freedom. Freedom.\u201d<\/em> has been echoing throughout my Spirit.<\/p>\nThen as I was getting ready for work this morning a song by the Casting Crows came on, Here I Go Again. This song talks about a person whose best friend is dying and the person feels convicted because he\/she always dodges talking about the God stuff, and now it might be too late. Here is the portion that I couldn\u2019t shake from my head:<\/p>\n
\u201cLord you love him so; you gave your only son. If he will just believe, he will never die. How then will he know what he has never heard\u2014Lord he has never seen mirrored in my life. Maybe this time, I\u2019ll speak the words of life with your fire in my eyes. But that old familiar fear, it\u2019s tearing at my words. What am I so afraid of, because here I go again talking about the rain; mulling over things that don\u2019t live past today. As I dance around the truth, time is not his friend\u2014this might be my last chance to tell him that you love him\u2026but here I go again.\u201d
\n<\/em>
\nAnd at that moment I felt like a fraud. I stand in public and talk about Christ\u2019s unconditional love, as we are all his children made in his image, and yet I am still harboring a special place of hate and resentment in my heart for a select few people. Then the final association hit\u2014I loathe, fear, and I am crippled by these few people like many of my brothers and sisters in Christ feel about gays and lesbians who are, or were, close to them at one time. No longer will I do that. So here is my freedom through truth, freedom through forgiveness not spoken, but contently given to God. It\u2019s taken many years for me to get here, but if I\u2019m to publically move forward for what the Lord has asked of me, then I can have no place for secret hate\u2014even if no one knows but me. Here is my secret list of people I am forgiving once and for all:<\/p>\nFor the past four years there has been a man who just won\u2019t leave me alone\u2014not The Marin Foundation, not anything I do, say or write. He runs to any newspaper or magazine that will listen to him and he spews hate against me and what the Lord has asked me to do. He lies about me\u2014he blatantly makes up things I\u2019ve said, things I do or things I\u2019ve done, and he just won\u2019t stop. One day, with vengeance in mind, I Googled his full birth name (that I found out from one of his relatives that I so happened to meet). And wouldn\u2019t you know that the very first thing that popped up was his mug shot and home address because he is a registered sex offender for molesting a young boy in the late 90s. He\u2019s covered everything up really well because he has a new identity. He is a very successful businessman, heavily involved with child advocacy rights in his community, and he donates A LOT of money. No one knows the truth\u2014but now I did. I printed his sex offender page off the internet and I\u2019ve hid that page in my cabinet for the past 3 years, waiting, for just the right moment to publically hold it up in front of TV cameras, reporters and a huge group of people\u2014finally exposing this man, his lies and false motives. But I\u2019m not going to hide it anymore. I burned it today. It\u2019s gone, it\u2019s given up and committed to the Lord and no more will I feel like I have to defend myself against this man and the media outlets that love to listen to his garbage. I forgive you. And I am now going to be intentional about learning to love you because you are no less of a child of God than me. I am free from your traps; I have released myself for carrying you as a secret burden and thank you for being the one to bring this all to light.
\n<\/em><\/p>\nI also forgive two people who used to be very, very close to me. They have decided to go in another direction and say negative things about me and tell some media gossip folks partial truths to very personal things that we all experienced together. I forgive you. I will no longer deny what you two meant to me, and how you two set me on the path the Lord destined me to be on. You two still mean the world to me, and that is why I resented you and what you did so very much. I have released myself for carrying you as a secret burden. Thank you for letting me love you, and one day I pray we can all connect again and restore what we had years ago.
\n<\/em>
\nOverall, the media has not been my friend. People always tell me, \u201cno media is bad media.\u201d Well, I don\u2019t agree. But from now on I am releasing my secret burden, resentment and hate, to control what others say, twist or write about me. I can only be me, transparent and honest, and how others use that for their story line is up to them. I forgive them, and I am looking forward to the next opportunity I will have to be honest and transparent all over again\u2014no matter what.
\n<\/em>
\nA benediction in closing:<\/p>\nThank you Lord for allowing me to be free to forgive and free to live my life the absolute fullest I can through your unrelenting grace. Allow me to never change my transparency because I\u2019m scared of what might happen with it. Thank you Lord for this opportunity to release these secret burdens that no longer will haunt my Spirit. In Jesus\u2019 holy name\u2014Amen.
\n<\/em>
\nMuch love.
\nhttp:\/\/www.themarinfoundation.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forgiveness can be a tricky thing. Many people, including myself, are able to talk about forgiveness as an important task in order to move on. Some people, not-so-much including myself, are also able to actually do it in their mind, heart and Spirit instead of just vocally forgiving the person(s) who have wronged them. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1306,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[134,127,147],"tags":[129,156],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-lgbt","category-theology","tag-faith-and-homosexuality","tag-reflection"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n