Chapter 12 / What to Do With Your
“Third Week of March”
Cadenhead
didn’t ask the Vatican for money.
Instead, in a humorous manner on his blog he suggested a few things he
would trade for:
- Three days, two nights at the Vatican hotel.
- One of
those hats (referring to the bishop’s hat).
Wonder what Rogers did the third week of March in 1987? Me too, but does it really matter?. Most of us have at least a week for which
we’d love to have total forgiveness.
We discover in The
Story that David did. One day when
the army is at war, David, who is the commander of the nation’s military,
neglects his duties and stays behind. He
sees Bathsheba, seduces her, gets her pregnant, murders her husband, and tries
to cover up his actions by deceiving his general and soldiers. Then he marries Bathsheba and she bears their
child.
It looks as if David will get away with all of this. But he doesn’t. God sends his prophet Nathan to confront
David by telling him a story about a poor man with one lamb. David knows something about sheep and
shepherds, so he listens. Nathan says
that the poor man has a rich neighbor who needs to slaughter a lamb to feed a
guest, but instead of taking one of his many sheep he steals the poor’s man’s
one lamb.
David is incensed and says that man should be put to
death. Nathan then declares, “You are
the man!” At that moment David must have
wished he had bought a domain name that he could swap for absolution. He may have wanted to make excuses. Explain things away. Blame it on Bathsheba for taking a bath in
broad daylight where he could see. But
instead of making excuses, David confesses. “I have sinned against the Lord” (2
Sam. 12:13).
And God did with David’s sin what he will do with yours and
mine. He put it away (Psalm 103:12-13).
You can do what David did.
Whatever your “third week of March” might be, sit down with it, yourself
and God. Confess your sin. And then let another shepherd from Bethlehem
forgive it. That’s better than any
domain name you might secure.
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