No More

Sunday September 14th, Genesis 50: 15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?" 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, "Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 'This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.' Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father." When their message came to him, Joseph wept. Lies tend to need lies to back them up. They were right in fearing that Joseph might try to act the same way they acted, and so compound the damage done with more damage. It would be nice to be able to point only to the other when saying that, but alas, it is not always the case. How many times have you been caught in a bit of a cover-up only to find you need more of a cover-up to keep the façade going? In the national arena there is the perception that if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth, and swift-boating becomes a verb to describe that process. When the message came to Joseph, he wept. Good plan! Sometimes that is all you can do, weep for the depths to which we are all capable of stooping. Weep, and then try to change the cycle and forgiving, saying, “no more?”