Leviticus 19:18 New King James Version (NKJV)
18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
God tells us we are to have within ourselves a spirit of forgiveness so we do not take vengeance out on others for the wrong done to us. Instead, we are to express love, a love that reaches out and forgives and embraces the person. Is there someone you are holding a grudge against or feel bitter towards? Pray God will release you from those feelings and instead fill your heart with love.
On July 12, 1986, Steven McDonald, a twenty-nine-year-old police officer on patrol in Central Park, stopped to question three teenagers about a bicycle theft. The oldest, a fifteen-year-old, took out a gun and shot him in the head, neck, and arm. McDonald was rushed to a hospital, where surgeons told his wife that he would be paralyzed from the neck down for the rest of his life. McDonald spent the next eighteen months in the hospital.
A few years later, McDonald made headlines again, this time because he publically forgave his shooter. Before his death in January 2017, McDonald explained why he forgave his shooter:
Looking back, pondering on my life since that time, it's clear to me that God was in charge. All he wanted was the opportunity to use me. He just needed my yes, and that was made possible by prayer. It's that simple, really. Through the family and friends that God put in my life, and their prayers, God spoke to me and said, "Will you love this boy who shot you?" And the best way that I could love him was to forgive him. Left to my own abilities, I don't think I would have done it. … And I know that I would have died a long time ago had I not listened to God, said yes to God, followed the example of his Son, and loved and forgiven.
Steven's son Conor McDonald, now an NYPD sergeant, recounted how his father would call him every day at 5:00 a.m. while he patrolled, just to wish him a good morning, and how during his college years his father would make a weekly trip to Boston just to have lunch together at Applebee's. "My father was always committed to me," Conor said, "He did more than most able-bodied fathers could ever do with their sons. … My parents created the most phenomenal life out of such darkness. It was due to their unmatched, unconditional devotion and love for each other, which I witnessed from the beginning of my life."
[Adapted from Sam Hine, "God's Cop," The Plough (April 2017)]
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