This post is difficult to write…

It involves a confession…

Here’s the confession:

I’m avoiding taking an action God wants me to take.

Even thinking about that action is difficult.

It stirs deep emotions.

I feel threatened by what could happen if I take the step God has laid out for me.

What is this dreaded action?

An apology.

God wants me to apologize to someone…

Apologize for something that happened years ago.

Why is it so difficult to apologize?

Both of us were hurt by the event.

“I’m not to blame,” I tell myself.  “Where is his apology?”

The other person thinks it’s my fault.

I am sure it is his…

… Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment…Romans 12:3

We are both waiting for the other one to apologize.

Is that what God wants?

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.  Matthew 5:23-24  

Does God want us to harbor hard feelings toward each other?

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.  1 John 4:20-21

Did God wait for us to repent before he pursued reconciliation with us?

We love because he first loved us.   1 John 4:19

…that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  2 Corinthians 5:19

And what does God want us to do with the reconciling love he first gave us?

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.   John 13:34