But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:15 NIV)

For me, it is a humbling thought to think that someone else often decides my fate. In interviews, I try to answer questions, sell the best version of myself, and make a good impression.  However, the ultimate decision of my fate, is in the hands of someone, other than me.  A marriage proposal is a question, and the fate of that decision is not mine.  When I drive on the road,  I watch the gray path twist, bend, rise and fall.  The scars made of tar, white and yellow lines hold perhaps rules, perhaps suggestions.  A flowered memorial is shackled by weeds  and blows in the wind.  It would seem fate took a life. Mind mind considers the blank stage of the road. Have all drivers had a good nights sleep?  Are they sober?  Is there vehicle properly serviced?  When the play starts will fate turn its hungry eye upon me.  Will my existence be reduced to a tilted white cross?  Fate has written the scripts.  Other people are in action, and deliver the lines. I am at their mercy.

I like what I am seeing in the book of Matthew.   I think I may get to write the format of my level of forgiveness.  I have control! I imagine a finger gilded holding a pen made of lightning.  Glowing letters spill onto a leathery page.  The book is held aloft by a pedestal made of clouds.  The script will be my ally or my enemy.

Wrong, evil, sin, whatever word one chooses, is often an destructive act committed against someone else. If I steal, someone loses money or possession.  If I lie, someone is mislead, or fooled.  If I kill, someone loses their life.  I become the fate that acts upon them.  That is a mighty decision.  I am striving to be other people minded.  In all things if I decide in favor of others and act in their best interests I think the world will get better.  I don’t have any control about how I am treated, but I do love the notion that I have complete control of how I act toward others.

The thread of eternal life is gently woven by the fabric of forgiveness.

Copyright © 2016 Zachary W Gilbert