Was this forgiveness in action?

It may come as a surprise, or no surprise at all, that I spend a lot of time at my computer. When I am not using it for work / ministry purposes, I may use it to communicate with friends and family, conduct online banking, or do some personal research on any myriad of subjects. So when my computer becomes inoperable, for any reason, I can feel like I am stranded on a tropical, deserted island with no food and water. It can feel rather nice to be on the island, but I quickly become hungry and thirsty!

Last month I was stranded on the beautiful, tropical island called “NO computer!” for almost two days. It was a mixture of elation (Oh Boy!...a day off!!!) and unrest (uh oh!...what was that next appointment!???). The longer I sat on the pearly white, sandy beach of “NO computer!”, the more hungry and thirsty I got. I found some empty bottles (clearly someone had been here before) and a notepad and pen…so I wrote some notes, stuck them in the bottle, and threw them out to sea, trusting the currents would whisk my HELP!!! messages to someone who could save me!

Guess what!? It worked! Sort of…

The first person who arrived was very pleasant, and they expressed their joy in getting my message and how happy they were to help me. We hugged and greeted each other and after a short chat we got set to leave the tropical paradise of “NO computer!”. Oops… Houston, we have a problem. The small boat the rescuer brought had sprung a leak and sank while we were reveling in our joy of being rescued from the tropical paradise of “NO computer!”. Wait a minute!...the rescuer had a cell phone and was able to place a call to headquarters to ask for another boat to come pick us up. No problem…except we had to wait until the next day.

The next day!!! You have got to be kidding me, I thought! It’s a nice island and all but I have no food or water here! What the #$%^& am I supposed to do???!!! Well…

I did the only thing I could. I began my forgiveness process. For the rest of the day, overnight, and in the morning leading up to the imminent arrival of the new boat to rescue me, I recounted my learnings about forgiveness. I sat on the beach in the hours preceding the arrival of the new boat and meditated. With each passing moment, the tension in my body began to dissipate. I became more relaxed and felt my chest open. I could feel the forgiveness working. I no longer held any ill will toward myself, the first rescuer, or the team enroute to the tropical island of “NO computer!”.

The rescue team arrived and helped me board the beautiful boat to take me back home. I looked back at the beautiful tropical paradise of “No computer!” and waved goodbye. The crew of the boat pampered me and doubted on me. They even made a brand new computer available to me for the ride back home…so I could catch up on my work. And guess what???!!! The computer worked great! (Wink! Wink!)