84. The Prayer of Pardon
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Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against
them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Acts 7:60O
NEof the most difficult choices to make when we have been
hurt is whether to blame or to forgive—whether to walk the
wide road of bitterness or the narrow path of pardon. Choosing, as
Jesus did on the cross, to forgive those who have wounded us is
choosing to line up our lives with his. It is choosing to embrace our
Lord’s command in John 13:34 where he charged his disciples to
love others “as I have loved you.”
Is it really possible to live and love as Jesus did? It’s hard to imag-
ine the level of love it must have taken for him to walk out his life
on earth, much less what it would take for me to try to duplicate
such a life.
But Jesus is no sadist. He has not left me an impossible assign-
ment. Rather he allows me to see in the lives of other saints the kind
of love he requires. He shows me that these are real people who,