Thursday, January 28, 2010

The Power of Forgiveness

Yesterday I was driving and listening to The Story with Dick Gordon on NPR. It was the second half of the program that airs here from 11-12. The Story ( click on the link to listen to it )was about Eva Kor, a woman who survived Auschwitz. She described her experiences. I missed that part, but the part I heard was her "gift" to the Nazi doctor, Mengele, who had used her and her twin sister for experiments. Her gift was forgiveness. She established a center for others that have endured similar experiences. Here's a link to her website. She tells her story and how she could forgive.
I don't know whether she is a Christian or not, but what she says about forgiveness has some truth to it.
 I call it [forgiveness] a miracle medicine. It is free, it works and has no side effects..
She also calls it "chemotherapy". It works for yourself. You can't take it for someone else. Corrie ten Boom has a similar story of forgiveness when she met up with a guard from the camp where she was imprisoned.

These stories also go along with my Bible reading today in Matthew 18:23-35, the story of the servant who owed an astromical amount to his master, but was forgiven when he begged for mercy. Yet he went out and imprisoned one who owed him pennies. Forgiveness. We've been forgiven so much!

2 comments:

Sharon said...

When I was 20, living from paycheck to paycheck, I borrowed money for a plane ticket to pay a surprise visit to my father. I wanted to finally understand his issues, forgive him, and ask his forgiveness. The result was not only a restored relationship for us (and no regrets when he died years later), but for other family members as well, one by one. As you quoted, forgiveness is indeed a miracle medicine. God's ways are so good and so perfect, and so very much for our blessing.

dyount said...

Hey Rach,

We watched a movie about Eva Kor and her travelling around talking about
Forgiveness in my women's bible study. She isn't a believer but really wanted others to forgive. She met with some very hostile Jews who told her she had no right to forgive something that hadn't been paid for, they said there was no justice that way. The thing that struck me was they were right in a way. God has always demanded a blood sacrifice for sin. Since these folks didn't know their own Messiah they didn't know that His sacrifice freed them to forgive. The irony is at the end of the movie you see surivors or their relatives gather at Auschwitz for a remembrance service and in their service you can hear the cantor singing in Hebrew calling for the coming of Messiah.