No More Ding Dong
The Bible says: “Be kindly affectioned one to
another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to
hospitality. Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that
weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise
in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible,
as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” Romans 12:9-18 (KJV)
Corrie Ten Boom told of not being able to forget a wrong that
had been done to her. She had forgiven the person, but she kept rehashing the incident and so couldn't sleep. Finally, Corrie
cried out to God for help in putting the problem to rest.
“His help came in the
form of a kindly Lutheran pastor,” Corrie wrote, “to whom I confessed my failure after two sleepless weeks.”
“Up in the church tower,” he said, nodding out the window, “is a bell which is rung by pulling on a rope.
But you know what? After the sexton lets go of the rope, the bell keeps on swinging. First ding, then dong. Slower and slower
until there’s a final dong and it stops. I believe the same thing is true of forgiveness. When we forgive, we take our
hand off the rope. But if we’ve been tugging at our grievances for a long time, we mustn’t be surprised if the
old angry thoughts keep coming for a while. They’re just the ding-dongs of the old bell slowing down.”
“And so it proved to be. There were a few more midnight reverberations, a couple of dings
when the subject came up in my conversations, but the force which was my willingness in the matter had gone out of them. They
came less and less often and at the last stopped altogether: we can trust God not only above our emotions, but also above
our thoughts.”
Daily Chronological Bible Reading: 1 Kings
9; 2 Chronicles 8
