Over the past few years, I have gotten into the custom of reading a Bible verse or two before heading out on my morning commute. I have found it helps set a tone for the day by giving me a point of meditation.
This one particular morning I happened to open up to Luke 11:1, the Lord’s Prayer, a passage I’ve read or heard countless times.
On the road I began thinking about the Lord’s Prayer, our Lord’s example on how to pray, a scaffolding for prayer. I thought about how I prayed. Did I follow this structure? So I gave it a shot.
With the radio off, I made my way through the format easily enough, structuring my personal prayer to emulate the Lord’s Prayer, that is, until I got to “as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Who were “those” who “trespass against” me? Who did I have in my life to really forgive? I know I had forgiven people in the past. I must have because I don’t hold grudges on anyone. I could only think of maybe a small handful of people who had done anything to me that required true forgiveness. How could I include the mandate of forgiveness in daily prayer without being an active practitioner?
I wondered how often any of us are really trespassed against anyway when out of nowhere a car careens into my lane forcing me to swerve into the other lane, slam on my brakes, and quickly veer back, narrowly avoiding a multi-car collision.
I instinctively leaned hard on my horn and loudly shouted a few expletives. How dare this other car risk my life, my well-being, the well-being of my family? I could only imagine the amount of damage that might have been inflicted just because some jerk was in too much of a hurry or chatting away on a cell phone or stuffing down a drive-thru breakfast. It made me instantly angry, incredibly irritated, and, suddenly…forgiving?
“As we forgive those who trespass against us,” I heard in my mind. I took a deep breath and quietly said, “I forgive you.” Almost immediately I began to feel a strong sense of empathy for this terrible driver, no, this fellow commuter. Maybe this guy had just had an argument with his wife. Maybe he had just heard some dreadful news. Maybe if he was a minute late for work he’d lose his job and consequently his income, his home, his family, his life. Maybe he was so emotionally distraught that he didn’t even notice I was there.
And then I realized that I had discovered an amazing way to practice forgiveness on a daily – twice daily – basis, guaranteed.
I began forgiving every little misgiving on my commutes. Cut off, beeped at, tailgated – forgiven. Passed on shoulder, not let in merge, slowed in the fast lane – all forgiven. Not turning on red, not signaling turn, not taking turns at a merge – forgiven, forgiven, forgiven.
I even forgave federal, state, and local municipalities for the potholes, frost heaves, and fissures of their roads.
I found my new full on forgiveness made my commute a little less stressful. I drove a little slower, and frankly a little more defensively because I was now looking more closely for trespasses to be forgiven, and I was sometimes even able to anticipate a potential trespass and avoid it completely. And maybe forgiveness practiced on a daily basis may help us when we are faced with the more difficult trespasses.
As I was thinking about all of this, a loud beep startled me. Apparently I was so deep in thought that I had drifted just a little into the next lane.
Dean P. Johnson teaches English in Camden and is a member of Mary Mother of Mercy Parish, Glassboro.
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