The motivating factor behind most jerks is their desire to control. They want power over other people. As long as I do not forgive, I give them exactly what they want. When I forgive, I give them exactly what they need. When I forgive, I put God back in control. Forgiving a jerk does not make him or her right, but it sets me free. The irritating personality of my boss eventually caught the eye of his superiors, and he was moved to another position. I saw him one day as I was walking to the chapel.
“Hey, You!” he shouted. “Yes, sir,” I responded.
THE JERK
by ROY A. BORGES
M
Y NEW BOSS was a stickler for rules, and many of my fellow prisoners did not like him. His drill-sergeant
mentality and irritating personality upset them. I was determined not to let him make me another victim.
My first problem with him occurred the second day when I told him I had a call-out to go to the chapel. He asked the chaplain to take me out of the Bible class that I had been attending for many months, because it supposedly interfered with my working hours. It didn’t. When his plan failed, he told me I had to work on Saturdays to make up the hours I missed.
He always pointed his finger in my face and called me “You,” as if I did not have a name. I asked God to give me the strength to bear it. He did, and Satur- day when my boss made me sweep my shadow off the sidewalk for two hours, I did not get mad. Instead, I did a good job and got the dirt out of all the cracks. After that he told me to pull weeds for two hours. I did it and sang Christian songs to myself while I worked. I have struggled in my life with for- giving people who hurt me. But God has taught me that when I forgive them, He is able to show me my hurt from a different perspective. I think of Christ’s
26 EVANGEL • APR 2010
prayer from the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). I decided that jerks “know not what they do,” and can be so mixed up, so troubled, so spiteful, or so insecure that they act purely out of instinct. They are incapable of thinking about the feel- ings of others.
“You impressed me,” he said. “How come I couldn’t get to you?”
I answered, “Since Jesus Christ came into my life, He has changed me and I can do things I never could before.” As I walked into the chapel, I realized God had just shown me another purpose for the jerks that come into my life—the Lord wants me to be a witness to them. I want to learn to see “jerks” the way God does—for what they can be. After all, isn’t that how He sees me?
Roy A. Borges is serving time in a correc- tional institution in Florida.
THE KEYS TO ETERNAL LIFE
CHRIST PAID for our salvation with His death on the cross, but for us to accept this gift is as simple as using these keys to unlock the door:
Acknowledge you have sinned
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).* “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
Believe in Jesus
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that who- ever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Confess and renounce your sin
“If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
*Scriptures are from the New International Version.
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