“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
When I move to a new community, finding a good church to attend is number one on my to-do list. While finding someone to cut my hair is not second, it certainly makes the top ten. That’s because the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is about two weeks, which can seem like an eternity if you’re on the losing end.
Recently, I reunited with a hair stylist I had twenty years ago. She was outstanding and I lost contact with her when I moved to Georgia in 1992. Now that I am back in the area, I found her after some good detective work by my wife. I called Norma and made an appointment.
Conversations in hair salons and barber shops amaze me. They are known for gossip. Presidents are impeached, reputations are questioned, recessions are solved, and heroes are made. You name it, I’ve heard it.
When I sat down in her chair and finished the pleasantries, I wanted to catch up on what the last twenty years had been like for her. At the end of our conversation, she became a hero of mine. But not out of gossip, out of truth.
Norma relayed to me a hospital experience she had about fifteen years ago. She had become deathly ill and was told she had only a few days to live. She was a Christian who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. One dark night in the hospital – knowing the end was near – she turned to the Lord in prayer. (The words are mine but the story is hers.)
“Lord,” she said, “I don’t like the news I have been given, but I trust you. I know my kids will be okay and if this is truly what you want, I am ready. But I haven’t lived the life all the time that you would have me live. I apologize for that and asked that you forgive me for any way I have failed you, anything I have said or done against you. I want you to heal me, but more than anything I want you to forgive me.”
“Mike, obviously I am here and was healed through the knife of a very skilled surgeon, a Christian, who came to me and told me that surgery was extremely risky but the only chance to save my life. He wasn’t assigned to my health care team. He knew me from high school, heard the news, and reviewed my situation. I have known him all my life and I knew he hadhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif a very close relationship with the Lord. I trusted his advice, put my life into his hands, and I believe I am alive today because he showed up. And I believe my prayer that night had a lot to do with it.”
“But that isn’t the miracle that touched me the most. After my prayer that night, I had the warmest feeling come over me. I have never felt anything like it. And the peace that came with it let me know it was from the Lord. I didn’t know whether I was going to live or die, but I knew I no longer had to worry about it.”
Harriett Ward Beecher once wrote, “God pardons like a mother, who kisses the offense into everlasting forgiveness.” That’s exactly what Norma felt. God kissed her that night and her future was changed by her prayer. The message for me, and my message for you, is we should never underestimate the power of God to change our future by forgetting our past.
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