Devotion: Bold Faith

Please take the time to read Matthew 13:18-23 & Hebrews 4:14-16

Some people marry into rooting for a specific sports team or having access to a vacation house or specific holiday traditions. I married into a movie group. When my husband and I started dating about ten years ago, he told me he was a member of a group of people who for 30 years had been meeting every Thursday night to have dessert and watch a movie. Hosts rotate based on some version of the alphabet and availability. The host provides dessert and chooses the movie. Everyone watches whether it’s your jam or not. Ten years later they are still going strong. Every. Thursday. Night. For over 40 years. That’s pretty hardcore. And that’s a lot of movies. It’s kind of incredible. Due to our schedule, we are only going to other’s house sporadically at this point but still host when it’s our turn.  

Last Thursday it was our turn.

As we hit play for the movie we intended to show, we realized that we didn’t have the streaming service it was available on. Ugh! We had to quickly pivot and ended up watching Invictus, a 2009 movie directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, a star rugby player. It’s based on the true story of how Mandela used the 1995 Rugby World Cup to unite post-apartheid South Africa.  

I’ve attended three “God @ The Movies” showings this summer and have seen how God and theology show up in some unusual places in the movies. It’s no surprise that God showed up in this one too.

One quote that stood out hearing it and has stuck with me is Nelson Mandela saying (in Morgan Freeman’s voice!) to his head of security as to why he was employing and pardoning some of the people who had jailed black South Africans “Forgiveness liberates the soul. It removes fear. That is why it is such a powerful weapon.” Read those sentences again. And then read them again. 

That right there is some bold faith. That right there is living fearlessly. That right there are seeds falling on good soil and producing a crop many times what was sown.

In her sermon, Pastor Sarah said that living boldly is “doing something intentionally that scares us a little and excites us a lot.” In our scripture, Jesus says seeds falling on good soil refer to someone who hears the word and understands it.  

That’s forgiveness. That is what forgiveness is! It can be a little scary. It is very exciting. It’s what happens when we hear God’s word and understand it. And understanding it requires living it. And living it is being fearless.

If there are people in your life, in your neighborhood, in your community or in this world who have wronged you or disappointed you or made you uncomfortable, live boldly by showing mercy to them, hearing them and understanding them. Forgive them. Because God already has.

After all, it’s impossible to fear who you have forgiven. Forgiveness is truly a powerful weapon.  

I don’t know who in your life needs your forgiveness and for what. Maybe it’s a family member, maybe it’s a friend, maybe it’s a foe – maybe it’s the face in the mirror? Whoever it is, let us all make a point of boldly living our faith fearlessly and forgive. 

Good, Gracious and Generous God –
Let the seeds that You’ve sown in us help us to hear and understand those who weigh on our hearts. Let forgiveness be the weapon we choose to live our faith boldly and fearlessly.
Amen.

Written by Dacia Kruse

Dacia lives in Lincoln. She is a lobbyist and mediator through The Mediation Center where she primarily works with parents who are separating and trying to figure out how to co-parent their kids.

She has been a member of Sheridan since the late 1990’s and serves on the Sheridan Church Council. She regularly attends Theology Roundtable and serves on a Saturday evening hospitality team, the Sunday morning Welcome Center team and as a Wedding Coordinator. In her free time, she likes to read, travel, shop and decorate her house.