The following commentary from Jim Daly was featured on the Fox News Rundown podcast:
If you’re like most people, you’ve been struggling to make sense of all that’s been transpiring these first few weeks of the new year.
The scenes of rioting and political unrest have been profoundly unsettling, only adding to the challenges of a deeply divided country.
Whether Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, you know there must be a better way. There HAS to be a better way.
The writer of the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament of the Bible says there’s a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens.
Well, now is the time for healing.
But healing isn’t always an easy process. Sometimes we have to limp before we can leap.
So, how do we begin?
As a Christian, I believe it starts with forgiveness. It’s about releasing and relinquishing the need for revenge.
Almost two-thousand years ago, Jesus talked about turning the other cheek. If someone slaps you on the one side, He said, turn and let them slap the other.
Who does that?!
We live in a fight-filled world. People would rather win an argument than win a friend.
They’d prefer to be right than have a relationship.
And that’s our problem.
If we’re going to heal as a nation, we have to be willing to forgive each other.
We need to cancel the cancel culture.
We need to wake up from Wokism.
We need to stop lashing out – and start looking within ourselves.
We need to recognize we’re a pluralistic country, a nation of many people and many different beliefs. But if you want me to respect your point of view, isn’t it only right for you to acknowledge I, too, have a right to my point view?
Turning the other cheek is hard. I’ve struggled to do it many times, and my guess is, so have you. It’s hard because when you forgive someone, you’re refusing to make them pay for what they did, what they owe you. You’re absorbing the blow – carrying the debt.
Once upon a time in America, there was a general consensus that we could agree to disagree – but still live peacefully, with one another.
We need to return to that ideal, and stop punishing one another because we don’t always believe the same things.
Healing isn’t easy – and it also often takes time. So, let’s be patient and be realistic.
Bones that break don’t mend overnight. But it’s been said that bones that break are often stronger at the point of the fracture than they were before they were broken.
And yes, wounds often leave scars – but scars are wounds that have healed.
K says
-It seems that there are still many who would rather be right than at peace. Smh….
Connie says
-Thank you, Focus on the Family, for allowing people to voice their differing opinions. Your graciousness is a testimony to the love of God.