“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).
Anne Lamott writes, “Not only is everyone screwed up, but everyone screws up.”
Yup. That pretty much sums it up.
The reason why compassion, understanding, and forgiveness is a necessity is because we’re all screw ups. Not only that, the forecast for screwing up doesn’t have an end date. Everyone of us is going to keep screwing up.
Gee.
So, God tells us, “You guys want to do this church thing? You want to do this Christianity thing? You won’t make it without forgiveness. You will need to be forgiven, and you will need to keep forgiving.”
That we will mess things up is not a matter of if mess ups happen but a matter of when. It’s bound to happen. And without forgiveness and compassion, we have no hope of community.
That’s why God makes forgiveness a non-negotiable item for Christians. And there can’t be an end to forgiveness. It is to be an everlasting well of forgiveness. Jesus tells us, “Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them'” (Luke 17:4).
We’re all screw ups and that’s why we all need forgiveness.
Praxis: Faith in Action 