Love Keeps no Record of Wrongs

A Good Friday prayer (based on 1 Cor 13)

OK Lord, this love thing is really starting to hurt now
No record of wrongs?
Really?
How on earth do you expect me to forget all the hurts I’ve experienced?
I’ve been wounded so many times.
I’ve been betrayed by some people that I love
By some people that love me
How does one forget such things?
How?

How do you do it?
on this day above all days,
on this day when your closest friends turned their backs on you,
on this day when they whipped and beat and mocked and spat on you,
on this day when they made a crown out of thorns and jammed it onto your head,
on this day when they stabbed you in the side and gave you vinegar to drink when you were thirsty,
on this day when you felt so much anguish you begged your Father to take it away,
on this day when you even asked Him why He forsook you,
on this day when they drove spikes into your hands and feet and hung you up on display in the most humiliating way possible until you finally bled out and died,
on this day above all days,
how on earth did you manage to forgive them?
How did you find the strength while you were hanging there to ask your Father to ‘forgive them for they know not what they do’?
How do you not keep a record of those wrongs?

I sure don’t know how.
I don’t know if I ever will.
But I know it’s the only way to understanding true love
It’s the only way

I also know that I’ve betrayed you
Over and over again I have not only let you down
But I’ve also denied you.
I’ve pretended not to know you.
I’ve forgotten what you’ve done for me.
I’ve stabbed you in the back even when I have promised that I’d follow you.
I’ve participated in the horrible events of this Friday

On this day above all days
On this so called ‘Good’ Friday
I am reminded of how much you truly do love me
Not only despite my human frailty
but because of it
You’ve kept no record of my wrongs?
What love!!!

I guess it is a Good Friday after all
And I am challenged on this day above all days to love unconditionally
to remember my need and my gratitude for your forgiveness
to remember my need and my gratitude for the forgiveness of the loved ones that I have hurt along the way
to forgive and to forget the wounds that have been inflicted on me.
to leave them behind.
forever and ever
amen

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