The Unnatural Laws of Forgiveness.

Newton's First Law:  An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

The First Law of Thermodynamics and the Conservation of Energy:  If two systems are both in thermal equilibrium with a third then they are in thermal equilibrium with each other.

The law of conservation of energy: This states that energy can be neither created nor destroyed. However, energy can change forms, and energy can flow from one place to another. The total energy of an isolated system does not change.

In the physical laws of nature we expect balanced equations.  If something is still and undisturbed, we can expect it to remain so.  If something is set in motion, we can expect it to keep moving.  The force of energy may change forms, but it does not disappear.  As wild as the natural world appears, there is order.  There are equations.  There are explanations.  When we try to apply this intuitive logic to our human relationships, well, things don't quite add up the same way.  Energy poured into a relationship may fade into oblivion.  Massive forces exerted on an individual person may yield an explosion of energy 2 or 3 times that of which was originally exerted.  Or these same forces may cause complete immovability of that person.  A gentle nudge may produce an outpouring of happiness, or an eruption of anger.  A great exertion of effort may yield nothing, no result, or even a negative result.  

In the realm of human interaction, Forgiveness seems the most unnatural, most illogical and the most dependant on supernatural forces.  Forgiveness is the total absorption and total release of the (harmful) impact of a force upon you.  Forgiveness is the ability to totally undo that which has been done to you.  When a person is wronged their being quite naturally reacts and sets their emotion in motion.  There must be a reaction, and not necessarily an equal and opposite reaction.  That reaction could go many different ways, from a complete resistance to a complete flight in the opposite direction from the force of the wrong.  Forgiveness is the supernatural force that completely nullifies these bodies in motion.  To forgive within the system of our own human abilities is to fall short of complete and real forgiveness.  In a closed system, I may say I forgive you and even act accordingly, but that wronged energy remains somewhere and will surface again in at least equal energy, even if it is not recognizable as a reaction to the original wrong.  We may suppress, but we do not diminish the energy.  The ability to feel the effects of Forgiveness are mysterious.  The initial wrong will cause a reaction.  And if I have wronged you, it doesn't matter how sorry I am or how guilty I feel; the ability for you to forgive is dependant on forces other than my repentance.  There is no correlation between my regret and your ability to forgive me.  We appreciate apologies, but they don't really do anything in and of themselves.  I may sincerely beg forgiveness, but that does not necessarily mean that you can or will.  And on the other end, people have been able to truly forgive the most heinous of crimes without any prodding or expectation that they should do so. If you are able to forgive, then the energy to do so must come from somewhere else. It is an unbalanced equation.

In human efforts, we try to balance the wrongs against us with our flawed notions of revenge, or penance, or absolution.    In a strictly human to human expression of forgiveness, I must interact with you to come to some sort of resolution.  If I am sorry enough or you are gracious enough, then the problem is solved.  However, of course the efforts are never really enough and the energy expressed as pain is a resilient remainder.  Only in the power of Christ  can the equation of Forgiveness be completely changed.  You have Christ on once side, and everything else on the other.  In true Forgiveness it is Christ that acts on behalf of both sides.  I take my wrongs and repentance to him and he exchanges it for Grace.  The wronged person takes their unresolved pain to him and he exchanges it for comfort.  The act that makes both things possible is his death and resurrection.  His death accounts for the wrong, his resurrection insures hope and comfort.  True forgiveness is not an exchange we make with each other, but a complete surrender of all things to him.  And all hope is possible because of this surrender.  We can then come back to each other having had Christ balance the equation to our mutual benefit.

We are humans, acting in an isolated system.  We are trying to reconcile the logical exertions of Nature with the illogical expectation of supernatural beings.  We have eternal longing and desires, yet we are bound by flesh and time.  It makes for quite a mess.  The most noble of intentions can devolve in the frustration of inability to execute those intentions.  What is flesh but the realization that we are not quite what was meant to be.  Close, but no cigar.  A glimpse and a taste, but not (yet) the satisfaction of our true selves.  It is not chaos though, we have been left an option, THE option, of reconciliation.  We have the ability to call on a force to exert itself from outside this isolated system of time and flesh.  The eternal and perfect imposes it's will on the decaying world, making it new from the inside out.  God set this system in motion, and has always had a plan for it's renewal.  On the grandest of cosmic scales he will make all things new and be given his due Glory.  

In a particle accelerator we experience the universe on a incomprehensibly tiny sub-atomic scale, to help us understand the universe on an equally incomprehensibly massive scale.  In the endless cycle of human forgiveness we have the numerous tiny reactions, one soul to another that help explain the immense forces that God has set forth from the beginning of time.  In those moments of Christ filled forgiveness we have the evidence of the once and for all sacrifice he made to supernaturally balance the equation.  The world made whole, the world made new.

2 Corinthians 5
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Ephesians 1
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he[b] predestined us for adoption to sonship[c] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace,which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he[d]made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

William Blake: The Everlasting Gospel VII (excerpt)

This is the Race that Jesus ran t
Humble to God Haughty to Man
Cursing the Rulers before the People	65
Even to the temples highest Steeple
And when he Humbled himself to God
Then descended the Cruel Rod
If thou humblest thyself thou humblest me t
Thou also dwellst in Eternity	70
Thou art a Man God is no more
Thy own humanity learn to adore
For that is my Spirit of Life
Awake arise to Spiritual Strife
And thy Revenge abroad display	75
In terrors at the Last Judgment day
Gods Mercy & Long Suffering
Is but the Sinner to Judgment to bring
Thou on the Cross for them shalt pray
And take Revenge at the Last Day t	80
Jesus replied & thunders hurld
I never will Pray for the World
Once [I] did so when I prayd ill the Garden t
I wishd to take with me a Bodily Pardon
Can that which was of Woman born	85
In the absence of the Morn
When the Soul fell into Sleep
And Archangels round it weep
Shooting out against the Light
Fibres of a deadly night	90
Reasoning upon its own Dark Fiction
In Doubt which is Self Contradiction
Humility is only Doubt
And does the Sun & Moon blot out
Rooting over with thorns & stems	95
The buried Soul & all its Gems
This Lifes dim Windows of the Soul
Distorts the Heavens from Pole to Pole
And leads you to Believe a Lie
When you see with not thro the Eye	100
That was born in a night to perish in a night
When the Soul slept in the beams of Light.

William Cowper: Light Shining out of the Darkness

1

God moves in a mysterious way,

      His wonders to perform;

He plants his footsteps in the sea,

      And rides upon the storm.

2

Deep in unfathomable mines

      Of never-failing skill,

He treasures up his bright designs,

      And works his sov'reign will.

3

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,

      The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy, and shall break

      In blessings on your head.

4

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

      But trust him for his grace;

Behind a frowning providence

      He hides a smiling face.

5

His purposes will ripen fast,

      Unfolding ev'ry hour;

The bud may have a bitter taste,

      But sweet will be the flow'r.

6

Blind unbelief is sure to err,

      And scan his work in vain;

God is his own interpreter,

      And he will make it plain.

The Trojan Horse and Kingdom Come.

The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War about the subterfuge that the Greeks used to enter the city of Troy and win the war. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, decisively ending the war.  From Wikipedia

There was and there is a war in heaven.  The time and timing of these events are unclear, but the reality is not. God cast Lucifer and his angels to the earth. Mankind has also been placed on Earth.  This placement is not incidental.  The Earth is a jewel in all of the Universe.  Perhaps all the Universe is the by-product of the Creation of Earth, the focus of all existence.  On this planet all of the seen and un-seen forces come to bare.  Adam and Eve failed.  They were placed in paradise, yet turned from God.  A seeming endless fruitless siege upon everything began. Yet, God has always had a plan in motion, from Genesis 3 on, and instead of wiping out mankind and starting again, he patiently made a way through time and progeny to bring about victory. 

Satan set about corrupting Mankind for all time, taunting God himself.  Mankind seemed happy to oblige as well.  Death, depravity, consumption and destruction have been our legacy.  Yet, beauty remains, and truth and somehow, goodness.   Through time and flesh and providence we enter the enemies territory on Earth and carrying inside us the secret that will destroy the enemy. Through Mankind, more specifically, through Woman a gift is given.  Jesus Christ has entered the world through the womb of a woman. This Ultimate Trojan Horse, was brought into the world to deliver a secret savior behind enemy lines. Eternally, Satan craves the power but lacks vision.  Satan was certain of his victory when this Messiah was Crucified.  Indeed it seemed as if hope had sailed away into the tomb. However, In his death and resurrection Jesus opens the gates of heaven. In doing so he creates his army: the Church, against which, not even the gates of hell will not prevail! 

Matthew 16
I will build my church, and the gates of hell[b] shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed[c] in heaven.”

There is a bigger story at work than our own salvation. In order for all things to be made new, the destroyer must be destroyed. We are not just saving souls, we are behind enemy lines recruiting God's army. Come Lord Jesus! 

War, Revelation

To a friend.

God has kept you alive...against your actions, at moments against your wishes and against all odds.  It's normal to ask why.  It's human to think, "There must be some reason, something I'm meant to do." Well this is true, you were meant for something bigger.  But we mess it up with our earthly thoughts. "I'll go to school and be somebody or I'll go to Africa and save somebody or I'll go to the poor and feed them or clothe them."  These are all noble aspirations and may be a proper calling.  However we can miss what the REAL something bigger.  If we feel that God has saved us we must realize that it first because he loves us.  He is moving heaven and earth to get us to a point to receive that love.  That's it, that's all.  He's God, he doesn't need us to do anything!  But what is this calling then?  Well that is the by product of love, not the producer.  When we know we belong to God, to Jesus Christ who bought us with his blood, then our actions, our calling is a natural out working of what he has worked into us.  Before you try and figure out what you are supposed to do, you need to know who you are.  You are a child of the living God.