All of us have been hurt in life. We each have been torpedoed or our ship has sunk beneath us. And if we are honest, all of us have hurt others at some time in life, accidentally or even maliciously.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Joe Morgan grew to deeply hate the Japanese because of their sneak attack. An aviation ordnanceman in the Navy, he was stationed at Pearl Harbor and went through the devastating Japanese bombing that took place that day. During that scary ordeal he promised, "God, if you get me out of this, I'll become a preacher." He honored his promise, becoming a Navy chaplain after the war. Yet he never forgave the Japanese.
Years later, Joe Morgan attended a survivors' convention. The guest speaker was Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, leader of the Pearl Harbor air assault. After the war, Fuchida converted to Christianity, also becoming a minister. After Fuchida's speech, Joe Morgan cautiously approached Fuchida to announce, "I am a survivor." His Web site describes what happened next:
"Fuchida said in Japanese, 'Gomenasai.' (I'm sorry.) Then he said in English, ‘Please forgive me.' He reached out to shake my hand. As our hands touched, all the hatred and animosity toward this man and his country was gone! God had replaced those feelings with forgiveness!" The commander apologized for his role. The years of anger and hate had vanished, and Joe Morgan forgave (www.joemorgan.org/PAGES/phstory8.html ).
My wife Lynn and I heard this story on our Feast trip to Hawaii in 2000. We visited the USS Arizona War Memorial, where Joe Morgan volunteered once a week. As we thanked him, I said, "The kind of forgiveness you talked about requires divine help." He grabbed me and said, "You're exactly right!"
Later, standing inside the white memorial built over the Arizona 's rusting wreck, big blobs of oil oozing up from its bowels, I reflected on his words.
Joe Morgan found freedom in forgiveness. Have you? Have I?
All of us have been hurt in life. We each have been torpedoed or our ship has sunk beneath us. And if we are honest, all of us have hurt others at some time in life, accidentally or even maliciously. We all have dropped a bombshell or two. I have. In fact, the reason I've shared this is because I had a problem in forgiving, both others and myself. With God's help, though, I am overcoming, and God wants you to find the same freedom.
Without forgiveness, life's bombs and torpedoes—the accidents, mistakes, hurts and sins—can harden us. Our lives can end up just as much of a tomb as the Arizona —a shattered, burned-out hulk with dead bones inside and a white sepulcher over it, just as Jesus described the Pharisees in Matthew 23:27.
But that's not God's will for you and me. God has called us to freedom, not to bondage. He says so in John 8:32: "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
God forgives us, and He expects us to forgive too. Jesus Christ said so in Matthew 18:22-35. The master in this parable was very angry at the unforgiving servant. The ending verse is especially poignant, and we should properly take heed: "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses." Jesus also warned, "But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matthew 6:15).
Forgiveness is so simple, and yet it is sometimes so hard (Luke 17:1-4). It is so positive, and yet sometimes it is so positively beyond us.
Yet it is what we are expected to do, because it is what God has done for us. That is why it takes divine help for us to forgive from the heart.
Since forgiveness is a matter of the heart, He gives us a promise in 1 John 3:20: "For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart." God and Jesus Christ know our human frailty and are willing to help change us to do what is expected—if we will choose to forgive.
Forgiveness is a daily choice, which we can make when we pray for others and ourselves. Forgiveness is also a lesson we rehearse each Passover. With Passover approaching, forgiveness and forgiving others are timely topics for you and me to consider.
Forgiveness is also a major theme of the future, when all who have offended and have been offended will finally find freedom in forgiveness: Germans and Jews, blacks and whites, Palestinians and Jews, American Indians and the white man, men and women, all will finally find the freedom of forgiveness that Joe Morgan's example is an inspiring type of: "I discovered that day the secret to world peace" (www.joemorgan.org/PAGES/phstory8.html , emphasis added throughout).
Joe Morgan's example inspired me to begin confronting and overcoming my problem, and I hope his story has a similar outcome for you. If Jesus Christ is living His life in you and me, then we will be making tangible progress, finding true freedom in forgiveness.
This is a promise from Jesus Christ: "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you" (Matthew 6:14).
Joe Morgan died in 2002. I contacted his son Rob and shared how meeting his father inspired me. In giving permission to share his father's story (see www.joemorgan.org/index.html for more details) he wrote:
"His website and video continue to share his story and change lives. I still share Dad's story as a wonderful illustration of how forgiveness works" (correspondence from Rob Morgan, Jan. 15, 2006).
Joe Morgan found freedom in forgiveness. His example is an example for you and me of how we can find true freedom. Can we also learn to forgive? UN
