Forgiveness

It’s hard to forgive people that hurt you, isn’t it? This week, Mandisa, a Grammy-winning singer, who sung her way into the top 10 of American Idol, died. So many are mourning her loss by recalling her life, her music, and her American Idol journey. Part of that journey was Mandisa standing up to Simon Cowell, who had a reputation of being intimidating.

So, what did Simon Cowell do that was hurtful? He had made a cruel joke about her weight. After her “Idol” audition, Cowell made a comment ‘about needing a bigger stage.’ She later confronted him by saying, “A lot of people want me to say a lot of things to you. What I want to say to you is that, yes, you hurt me, and I cried, and it was painful. It really was. But I want you to know that I’ve forgiven you and that you don’t need someone to apologize to forgive somebody. I’ve been forgiven so much. And that if Jesus could forgive me for all my wrongs, I could extend the same grace." Cowell apologized and was humbled and gave Mandisa a big hug.

Wow, just wow! I loved Mandisa's courage, her strengh and her ability to articulate her forgiveness to Cowell. Perhaps it's amazing because we just don't see it enough. Take a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5KQwCsWYgI 

Forgiveness is hard. I think you know when you haven’t forgiven someone. You think about that person in a negative way. They occupy way too much space in your mind. You’re in a mental jail. You remember exactly what they did to hurt you and you recall it often. And it doesn’t seem to go away. That’s unforgiveness.

Yet, Jesus’ teachings tells us that forgiveness is the core of the Christian faith. Matthew 11:25 says “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” It’s because of God sending Jesus to die as the final sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins, that we too, can forgive and show grace to others. Colossians 3:13 says “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

When Cowell said those hurtful comments to Mandisa, that hurt Mandisa to the core. Any of us would be hurt by that. And when we are hurt by others, it triggers hurt in our hearts. It’s easy to turn that hurt to bitterness unless we deal with it. And deal with it we must unless we want to hold on to unforgiveness.

This past weekend, my husband served inside a prison. There are many there who will be there for life. There crimes were so vile and heinous to warrant a return to the outside. However, with Jesus, there is no exceptions as to who can receive forgiveness. If those inmates trust in Jesus and receive His forgiveness, they too, are free, even though in prison.

Has it been hard for you to forgive? I pray that you and I will be free to forgive as Jesus has forgiven us. Could we be men and women who don’t seek to revenge, but instead release our desire to be bitter and extend grace to others?

One of my favorites by Mandisa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8VoUYtx0kw

Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain of the YMCA of Greater San Antonio. 

When I Consider...

Today is a day to stand in full of awe. We will see a total eclipse. I don’t think anything can prepare us for what we are about to see, the moon fully blocking the sun. We will watch around us go from day to night. Every one of us watching the total eclipse are a spectator. There was nothing we did to make this phenomenon happen. Our job is to simply behold.

Only God can put together a total eclipse. In your preparations for this day, did you consider God’s part in this day? As we gaze on what will place, would You draw your attention in awe to the One who created the eclipse?

Consider this verse: ‘When I consider your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"  (Psalm 8:3-4)

We can consider and place our focus on a lot of things. Many of those things aren't productive, helpful, or even positive. Consider means “to think carefully about (something), to contemplate; reflect on.”  In Psalm 8, David knew the value of simply considering the glory of God’s creation. He knew what it was like to look up into the starry sky and consider what a great God had made this vast, wonderful universe. (Enduring Word, Psalm 8, The Glory of God in Creation)

When we consider the heavens, it makes us see the greatness of God! When we consider the total eclipse, it makes us see the greatness of God! When we consider the greatness of the heavens, it makes us see the insignificance of our humanness. Even David, in Psalm 8, wondered how such an awesome, great God would be so mindful of such small beings.

David was confident that God not only thought about human beings but had a personal connection with them. He realized that God thinks about us and acts in our lives. He’s a very personal God and longs for a relationship with us. 

I believe God is happy for us human beings to actually see a total solar eclipse. I think He wants us to look at His beauty and consider Him. These things reflect the character and glory of God and call for us to find joy in the God who enjoys his handiwork.

Pay attention to what’s happening today. God created this world, sustains it and rules over it. He alone is worthy of our worship!

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.” Psalm 19: 1-6

How Great is our God!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV4nOVmWW2A

Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain of the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.

What is Real?

I love April Fools Day. I just love pulling off scandalous pranks when the receiver is least expecting it. Early on in our marriage, I told my husband that I found this beautiful Labrador on the street and brought him home while he was at work. He couldn’t believe I would do such a thing without asking! It wasn’t until he got home with a sour face that he heard “April Fools!”

The custom of setting aside a day for playing harmless pranks on others has been a common practice for centuries. As fun as it is coming up with April Fool’s jokes, we know they are not true in the end.

We just celebrated Easter, something very true that changed everything. Jesus rose again from the dead and defeated death. Jesus came to this earth for 33 years, lived a perfect life, went to the cross, and rose again from the dead three days later. That is no April Fools.

I can’t imagine what it would have been like to have walked through this horrific time with Jesus. He was mocked repeatedly, slapped, and punched as an imposter. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns for him to wear. The soldiers repeatedly struck Jesus on the head with a staff and spit on him. He is flogged, condemned to death, and led to the place of the crucifixion, carrying his cross. Jesus never fought back, although He had the power to do so.

Jesus offers you the ultimate hope. Real hope. No April Fools. Because three days after He was crucified and buried, He was raised from the dead. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) Jesus went through the worst possible suffering to pay the price of your sin and mine on the cross. When we receive Jesus by faith, we receive eternal life, both now and forever. 

We live in a world where we can never quite trust what’s real. It’s like we live in an April Fools world. We don’t know who to believe. What is real hope? Can we place our hope in politics? Our relationships? Our possessions? Our health? Our success? Our careers? Our finances?  All things we can hope for, but our ultimate hope remains in eternity where Jesus reigns forever.

C. S. Lewis once wrote, “If we find a desire within ourselves that cannot be satisfied by anything in this world, it is likely that we were made for another world.” Unlike the April Fools and the hopes of this world, we can place our hope in Jesus, a living hope, who conquered the grave.

Easter changed everything! Jesus is alive!

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you.” 1 Peter 1:3-4

We have much to celebrate! This song makes me so happy! God’s Not Dead! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_OTz-lpDjw

 
Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain of the YMCA of Greater San Antonio. 

Bracket Buster

My bracket was busted in less than a day in the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. My bracket is put together on a wing, with no prayer, and a little knowledge about college basketball. I know the names of a few good teams. But that’s it. I didn’t count on shockers like Oakland defeating three-seeded Kentucky.

Some interesting facts: I read from Forbes that over 22 million March Madness bracket submissions were busted on ESPN’s platform last Thursday. I’m in good company. Then, I also heard on our local radio station that the odds of a perfect 63-game bracket can be as high as 1 in 9.2 quintillion. Well, there you have it. No perfect bracket.

Just as I have no perfect bracket, I have no perfect life. I have sinned. I sin daily. I will keep on sinning as much as I try not to. Sin is my reality. Sin is your reality. I am not nor will I ever be perfect.

I think deep down we all know we’re not perfect. It’s so easy to hide our cracks, mistakes, and goof-ups, hoping no one sees them. We have a natural proclivity to hide our sins. Yet, we can’t hide from God. The big problem with humankind is found in Romans 3:12 “No one does good, not even one.” None of us are good enough for God because His standard is perfection.

Because God loved us so much, He had a solution for this. God came to the rescue by sending Jesus to the earth in human flesh. Authorities in his time plotted to kill him. He was arrested, falsely accused, and condemned to death on a cross. He was mocked, rejected, betrayed, and left on a cross to die.  

Jesus became the willing substitute for our sins. He hung on the cross for three days and before He died, declared “It is finished.” (John 19:30) Jesus knew and said He would be killed and on the third day He would rise again. This next Sunday, we celebrate what happened on that first Easter: Jesus’ resurrection!

God does expect you and me to be perfect. But because there’s no possible way for us to be perfect, He sent Jesus. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, He sees believers as perfect. (Hebrews 10:14) If we know Jesus, he has imputed his holiness to each child of God. He has left us with His Holy Spirit to work within us to bring Him glory.

I pray that You comprehend the beauty of the Easter message and celebrate well because there is much to celebrate.

‘For by one sacrifice, he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” Hebrews 10:14

This week: As you begin Holy Week, take time to read the passages of the Easter story in the Gospels: Matthew 26-28, Mark 15-16, Luke 22-24, and John 17-20.  May God use these passages to help prepare your heart for Good Friday and ultimately, Easter.

Take a moment to listen to this beautiful song by Andrew Peterson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIahc83Kvp4 

Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain of the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.

The Transformation of Peter

In our day, Peter in the Bible would be considered a red-necked Bass fisherman. Do you go to Bass Pro Shop for spiritual counsel and guidance? I doubt it. But perhaps my husband does because he loves to fish. Would anyone trust a fisherman to know anything about spiritual matters?

Peter’s original name was Simon and he was one of Jesus’s twelve disciples. While fishing with his brother Andrew, Jesus called him, and the brothers followed. He was with Jesus until he went to his death. He was impulsive, ambitious, bold, passionate, inconsistent, and zealous as a leader. He had an eagerness that was beautiful but often landed him in trouble as Jesus tried to redirect him.  He quickly committed to something without understanding whether he could follow through. He often spoke before thinking and even tried to tell Jesus what to do! Peter was Peter, a red-necked Bass fisherman turned disciple.

And we can’t forget Peter denying Jesus. (John 18:15-18, 25-27) After Jesus was arrested, Peter initially denied him two times. He didn’t bat an eye in denying Jesus.  but after the third denial, he heard the rooster crow and remembered Jesus predicting this would happen as Jesus looked at him. Peter sobbed in sorrow! Yet now we see that Peter’s failure was not final.

We find it so easy to judge people for just about anything! Just as Peter had plenty of character traits that could cause people to be judgy towards him, so do you and I. As much as we’d like to say, “How in the world could Peter deny Jesus, not one or two, but THREE times?” we too, could commit so many sins against Jesus. We're often too busy judging others.

Do we look at people with the love of Jesus and believe in them? Do we believe that people can change?

Peter changed over time. The reality is that we all have made mistakes. Not one of us is perfect. We’ve all sinned. Time with Jesus will transform us and that’s what happened with Peter. We see in Acts 4:13 a different Peter “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”

When Jesus called Peter initially, his name was Simon. Yet, Jesus changed His name to Peter, which means rock. (John 1:42) “For three years, Jesus called him ‘Rock’” At the time Peter was NOT like a rock! Jesus saw what Peter could be and transformed Peter into that.

Greg Laurie writes “We see a Simon. God sees a Peter. We see the past. God sees the future. We see a mess. God sees a message. God sees us for who we are in Christ, not what we were in sin. God does not see us in our sins; He sees us in His Son.  God can change everything in your story- if you’ll let Him.”

Take a listen: Graves into Gardens (Elevation worship) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF-2CQjC7PM

Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain of the YMCA of Greater San Santonio.

Everybody's Going Through Something

Everybody’s going through something. What I find sad is that we often hide what we’re going through because there’s an unwritten rule we must appear together.  We laugh it off. We try to minimize. We don’t want others to know our weaknesses.

I was just with a group of women this past week and I believe almost everyone in the group was going through something hard. It was sweet because as we opened up and shared our struggles, we allowed others in with them. We took time to pray together and give our burdens to God. 

Everybody’s going through something. We don’t need to go through it alone. We need our God to walk with us and a few trusted people as well.

Beth Moore tweeted recently “I don’t say these words tritely but with much thought over recent years. The best counsel I have for any of us walking through something we basically feel we cannot bear is to walk through it with the Lord. I mean really. Deliberately. Daily. Let his inaudible voice whisper to your spirit, come with me and I’ll walk with you through it."

Beth goes on to write “I’m telling you the truth here. How have I made it and how am I making it and how will I make it? And I will! Despite anything and everything, I surely will. I have one answer and only one and it is the truest thing to which I could ever testify: THE LORD.”

What’s your something? Loneliness. Betrayal. Marital or relational strife. Job issues. Fear. PTSD. Confusion. Lack of peaceful sleep. Suicidal thoughts. Heavy grief. Depression. A child who is struggling. Anxiety. Growing older. Medical issues. Crazy thinking. The suffering of someone you love. 

Whether we’ve just gone through something, we’re going through something now or we’re about to go through something, there is always SOMETHING. And it’s important what we do with our “somethings.”

We can turn to all sorts of things to deal with our somethings. The latest cool podcast. A drink or two or three. Some kind of habit or addiction. Hide from them. Reading the latest self-help book. Scroll through Facebook or Twitter to take your mind off it. And to be honest, many people just try to live with their somethings.

I believe Beth Moore’s words hit true for me. Jesus has walked with me through my somethings. I can't imagine life without Him! I find Matthew 11:28-30  (The Message) truly is what I do to get me through. It says: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me-watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” I run to Jesus just as this verse speaks about. Jesus’ presence has sustained through through some of the darkest of days.

So, when you wonder how you're going to get through your something, I invite you to consider Jesus in your life. He longs to have a personal relationship with You. Whatever you’re walking through, it may be incredibly hard, but going through it with Jesus is way better.

Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain of the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.

Greater

This morning, Ben and I were up super early for our spin class at the YMCA. Good music makes for good spinning. When I feel the music, I get into it. This morning was no exception. The song “Greater” by Mercy Me came on:

Bring your tired
And bring your shame
Bring your guilt
And bring your pain
Don’t you know that’s not your name
You will always be much more to me

Every day I wrestle with the voices
That keep telling me I’m not right
But that’s alright

‘Cause I hear a voice and He calls me redeemed
When others say I’ll never be enough
And greater is the One living inside of me
Than he who is living in the world…..

Bring your doubts
And bring your fears 
Bring your hurt
And bring your tears
There’ll be no condemnation here
You are holy, righteous, and redeemed.

Every time I fall
There’ll be those who will call me
A mistake
Well that’s okay…..

‘Cause I hear a voice and He calls me redeemed
When others say I’ll never be enough
And greater is the One living inside of me
Than he who is living in the world….. (continues)

I know what it’s like to wrestle with the voices. Maybe you do too. The voices that can compete for my attention. The voices that can put me down. The voices that say I’ll never be enough. The voices can be in our heads or real life. It’s hard to switch it off when it’s in our minds.

And no one knows we struggle. The voices continue and we think this is just life.

No! It doesn’t have to be this way!

I’ve known Jesus a long time, but I still need discipline and strength to hear God’s voice over all the other voices. I know I need God’s written word, the Bible to help me hear His voice. It’s God’s truth that enables us to recognize what does not come from God. The more I read God’s Word, the more I recognize God’s truth about who I am. When we are focused on ourselves and what we’re going through, we may miss God’s voice.

What if we lived like God was greater? What if we knew that knowing Christ gives us freedom from guilt and shame?  What if we knew that we could invite God to help us with the voices that haunt us? What if we knew we didn’t have to live with doubt and fear?

Cause I hear a voice and he calls me redeemed.
When others say I’ll never be enough.

Take a listen: Greater by Mercy Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXI0B4iMLuU

Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain of the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.