Sometimes, people make big mistakes

Good morning,

This morning I woke up to a scary, nasty set of messages through my inbox called "your payment has been returned." Immediately, all the signals went off in my head. Was there an error? Did someone steal my identity? Did someone steal my money? Did my wife write a bunch of bad checks to buy shoes (OK, that one's a joke).

The truth was, we recently began the process of changing banks and through our new institution, received checks with new account and routing numbers. The problem was, however, that the new checks had someone else's closed account number on them and not ours. Being a new account, we didn't know that until it was too late and by then, at least two checks and one online payment had been returned unpaid.

Later this evening after work, I will get my first introduction to the bad check department at the nation's largest retailer. With a new check in hand (corrected) and a letter from the corporate office of the bank, I'm praying to be removed from the list of bad check writers which are rejected by their system. Needless to say, I am a little embarrassed and also tempted to be pretty angry at the same time.

So then I considered how the Lord would want me to handle this. Have I ever made a mistake? Absolutely, all of us have. Someone at the corporate headquarters made a terrible error in printing these checks. The local branch has the right account number and they are both apologetic and regretful, but it was truthfully out of their hands.

My favorite book of the Bible is Luke. He was a physician and his writing about the poor and suffering proves he had an incredible compassion for those in need. He also reminded us of the direct words of Jesus in Luke 6:37: "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven."

Those words refused to leave my mind this morning as I read all those terrible messages and heard a helpless bank employee apologize to me for something she didn't do. The money is there, the account numbers will be corrected and they have written letters to ensure each of the businesses I paid do not hold me responsible.

But if I hold unforgiveness or maintain sinful anger and resentment against them, am I really any better than the person who made a mistake? No, in fact, I'm worse. Maybe I would feel different if they cost me thousands of dollars or destroyed my credit. But even then, though the test might be tougher, the same principle still applies. People make mistakes and when it's made right, we need to forgive.

This is called grace: Merit for something we do not deserve. A second chance when we haven't earned it. Another opportunity when we mess up the first one. I guess I could call all my buddies, bad mouth the bank, report them to the BBB, complain and write nasty things online, or I could simply say "someone messed up, and let them fix it and make it right."

That seems so much easier.

And now I just pray that the bad check police don't come and whisk me away the next time I check out at the big supercenter which shall not be named. Jesus would forgive them, I must forgive the bank and hopefully with the letter, they will forgive me.

That's what Jesus would do. Of course, they'd probably take a check from him without asking any questions...

Have a blessed day...and forgive others!

Pastor K