As I walked into the dining hall, I immediately ran over
to the teens table to sit with them for dinner. I was worried they might feel a
little awkward, and for the first few minutes we ate in silence. As I was
trying to think of a way to break the silence, I was reminded of a story that
was relevant to the evening, and I began to laugh out loud. The looked at me
strangely, so I joyfully shared my story with them:
When I was in college, my sister was sick and needed me to
drive her back home one weekend. Because she needed to stay in Atlanta, I was
driving her car back to Nashville by myself. It was late and rainy, so my
parents asked me to wait to leave until morning, but I knew I would be better
driving at night. I couldn’t see out my back windshield, so I gave the car a
lot of gas to make it up the driveway. Little did I know, my mother’s van was
parked at the top. I smashed up the bumper of my mom’s car and totaled my
sisters. That’s right, I totaled her car in our very own driveway. How dumb
could I be!? As soon as I realized what had happened, I was devastated and
hysterical.
My family heard the crash and came running out of the
house, but by the time they reached me I was crying so hard I could barely
breath. I was so embarrassed and felt horrible for what I had done, and I was
terrified of how they would respond. My dad was the first one to reach me, and
just as I thought he was about to start yelling, he looked me in the eyes and
began to laugh. He threw his arms around me, held me tightly, and told me that
it wasn’t a big deal. Not a big deal?! Cars are not cheap, and I just totaled
one…in the driveway!! I realized in that moment that even if I couldn’t forgive
myself, my father had already forgiven me. He made me look him in the eyes to
make sure I understood how much he meant it when he said, “It’s really not a
big deal, there are more important things in life. I love you.”
The teens began to laugh at my stupid mistake, but one boy
in particular, Beimar, looked at me with instant gratitude. Earlier that
evening, I had let the teen boys borrow my guitar. They had done it several
times before, so I wasn’t worried. However, one of them came knocking on my
door and asked me for a “favor of my time.” I knew immediately what that meant.
As I walked into their room, the first thing I noticed was that every boy had
tears streaming down their faces. Most of them wouldn’t look at me, and their
eyes had been red from crying for a while. The second thing I noticed was my
guitar lying on the bed, completely broken. To my surprise, the first feeling
that overwhelmed me was instant forgiveness. I made them all look me in the
eyes and listen intently as I simply responded. “Esta bien, no importa.” (“It’s
ok, it’s not a big deal.”) They were shocked at my response! Most of them bowed
their heads again, so I made them get up one by one and give me a hug so I
could remind them how much I loved them, and how little I cared about my guitar
in comparison to our relationship. I hated how bad they felt, but I was so
thankful for the opportunity we were given. Because of the way my father had
taught me how to forgive, I was now able to show these abandoned young men that
the love of Christ is so much greater than anything else in life – that nothing
we could do as humans will make our Father stop loving us or stop forgiving us,
no matter how badly we mess up.
Before I walked out of the room, Beimar hugged me again. That night we
all had so much fun together, and the only other time I saw those boys cry was
when we had to say goodbye the next morning. How powerful is the love and
forgiveness of our Father!
“…but you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love!” Nehemiah
9:17
