Forgiven

Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.
-Jane Austen

Today’s devotion is in the form of a poem by theologian John Shea. May his words find you where you need to be found today, and offer your soul a few moments of resurrection sunlight.

Seventy times seven God,
we come to confess
that often our lives fall
like smashed tablets to holy ground.

We say we will love
yet we manipulate.
We say we will dialogue
yet we dominate.
We say, “Speak truth!”
yet we hide in lie.

But the frustration of Paul
that the good we would, we do not
and the evil we should not, that we do
yields to the arms of the old man on the hill
who meets the self-hating scripts of the hired hands
with the robes of sonship
and the rings of daughterhood.

You are the father of parties
and no one outruns your joy.

Jesus told us
that for you
it is as easy to say walk
as to say forgive.
Say them both to us,
that we may walk in forgiveness.

And just then some people were carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”
-Matthew 9:2