Sorry

I wish that word had more power. Like the power to heal a heart like the person saying it wished it did. The power to stop the hurting forever. The power to reverse and reset everything the way it should have been. The power to not have become the person the choices made you. The truth is, that word has as much power as the person receiving it determines that it does. To one wronged and harmed by another, the word may be the lifelong quest that they feel they need to hear to move on. Yet even when you hear it, it doesn't matter. How many times have you heard or said, "Sorry just isn't good enough." or "Sorry just won't cut it." or "It's too late for that." The demand for justice now merely begins with sorry. But the onslaught of punishment won't be held back until we come to realize that you can't inflict enough pain on another to cause it to cease within you.

Jesus didn't wait for our "sorry" to forgive. When hanging on a cross, dying beneath the sneers and stares of the brokers of religion and even a mocking thief sharing His fate, Jesus says, "Father forgive them. They don't understand what they're doing." Jesus wasn't appealing to a reluctant God, for He only said what He heard His Father say. Jesus was revealing the heart of God toward us at our worst. His grace isn't a reward for us generating enough goodness to become sorry. His grace is the kindness that draws us to realize that we were wrong. Yet while that realization may result in our brokenness, His grace continues and creates a kaleidoscope out of our shattered pieces. The light of the world shines even through the broken, and the prism of hope that illuminates a darkened world is a rainbow of grace. Grace is both the response to and the initiator of a heart that is truly from the depths of it's very being......sorry. Let this light shine upon you. To all those who have anything to be sorry for today, grace to you.