When I was a very young pastor I served a church that had an annual bazaar to raise money for the building fund. That year things did not go well and the event did good to break even. The Sunday after I was walking down the hallway heading for the sanctuary when one of the women stopped me and said, “Pastor this is all your fault! If you had done more with publicity more people would have come to the bazaar.” Then she turned and stormed off.

I was stunned and then I was angry. How dare she lay that on me? I was not responsible for the bazaar publicity. My temper sometimes scares me so I keep it under tight control but I was about to loose it. I entered the sanctuary to set up the pulpit for worship. I opened my bible but it fell open to a different verse than I was going to use.

It was Luke 23:34 where Jesus was dying on the cross and said, “Father, forgive then; for they do not know what they are doing.” Guess who was talking directly to me about my anger? Jesus was asking God to forgive those who were killing him. I stopped and prayed for God to forgive me and I forgave that woman in the hall. I learned an important lesson that day.