By Chris WittsWednesday 21 Aug 2024Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
There’s an interesting song I’ve listened to quite a bit from the band – One Republic – it came out in 2007 called ‘Apologise’. It was a number one hit in this country and in other countries as well. It even won the band a Grammy Award. Have a listen. Look out for the words – it’s a very catchy tune.
Emotional lyrics, a haunting melody which has resonated with listeners around the world since it came out. Now this song is basically about someone hurt by a friend who then says they’re sorry – “sorry, like the angel heaven let me think was you.”
The guy here acknowledges that his partner may be apologising, but their words hold no weight anymore. The damage, well, it had been done. It’s too late, and he fears that they’ll never regain the trust and the love that they once had. Now it’s a very human experience. Too late for second chances. Too late for another mistake. It’s too late to apologise.
Can it be too late to apologise?
Maybe that strikes a chord in your heart this morning. It serves as a reminder that sometimes, despite our best efforts, it is too late to apologise and salvage what once was. I think we live in an apology averse culture. We’re allergic to the word repentance and equally allergic to forgiveness. So think about it. When was the last time someone said they were really sorry and they meant it?
In our culture, we learn to apologise with phrases like, I’m sorry if I hurt you. I know I shouldn’t have done that, but you shouldn’t have done it either, or I wouldn’t have done that if, and it wasn’t my best day. Now, these are not real apologies. A sincere apology is different to that. Most of us hate to do it – hard to admit when we were wrong and even harder to ask someone to forgive us, especially if that other person was partly to blame.
You probably know the experience. It reminds me this morning that sometimes we take the word sorry for granted. We fail those that we love time and time again, and then we just expect they’ll be OK if we say, ‘Oh, look, I’m sorry.’ We need to do more than apologise. We need to change our behaviour and that’s the hard part.
Chuck was an American serviceman who started having nightmares as the 50th anniversary of D Day approached. And every night, he said, a white ghost loomed over the foot of his bed. Finally, his wife got him to see the doctor, and after ruling out physical reasons, he was sent to see a psychologist. And, it turned out this ghost was the memory of a German soldier in a white winter camouflage uniform. And during the Battle of the Bulge, Chuck was in a foxhole when he heard the soldiers boots crunching on snow. He looked up and without thinking, shot him. Chuck was wounded, shipped off to hospital. He forgot about it, but this ghost lodged deep in his memories. Now he knew what the ghost was, and he thought, ‘What do I do?’ He worked with the psychologist and finally decided to write a letter of apology to the soldier who he killed, saying he was sorry that they had met the way they did, and he was sorry that it killed him. He took the letter to a public park and set this letter on fire, and the smoke carried the message and away and the ghost never returned for him.
Too late to apologise. It might be a good song, but there’s something wrong with it. It has left out this one fact. When it comes to a loving God, we will never get that response from him. We can think we’ve failed too many times that he has given up on us. It will never be too late, even after our failures with God. You see, it’s never too late. There’s something in us that longs for the spiritual.
The concept of Shalom – that word that means peace or a sense of wholeness in our relationship with others. And even while the Shalom is broken, our hearts know it, even if we can’t express it. So this business of forgiveness and reconciliation is at the heart of Christianity. It’s what distinguishes it from other religions. God wants us to move from brokenness to wholeness. He wants to pry us out of our brokenness by having us acknowledge that we have hurt other people, whether in seeking forgiveness or giving it as a sheer act of grace, ask that he will show you who needs a phone call, perhaps from you. And when you hear it’s too late to apologise, don’t you believe it.
Let’s Pray
Heavenly Father, today we are a people who don’t like to apologise even when we know we’re in the wrong. It sort of hurts our pride and our ego. But I come before you, Lord in repentance, asking for your grace and forgiveness. And I ask this in the name of Jesus, Amen.