All of us share the road of life. Many of us have experienced a broken road from time to time. The potholes of life are sometimes as numerous and deep as the potholes on a Michigan roadway. In my personal experience the potholes were put there with my own shovel. I would dig up the road of life ahead of me with negative thinking and pessimism. For many who knew me then, they would most assuredly agree. I was so sure in many cases that I was defeated. I had no way out and kept digging the holes in my life deeper and deeper. Can any of you relate? Can you recall a moment in time when your road…went off road?

A few months ago I started going to a men’s group to talk about some of the issues men face in their lives. It was good at first just to get to know them and have some good conversation. After a few weeks, we started getting into more personal stories. One week we were given a task to remember 10 of the worst moments in our lives. I never got to 10, I never got to 5, truth be told I never even made it to 2. The first moment I remembered took me back to when I was 14 years old. I remember the time, the place, and the event that changed the course of my life for the next 22 years. I think it was the span of time that I shut God out and finally let him back in. I wont get into detail here about what happened or what was said, just know that it was the day that my road went totally sideways. It has taken me almost 6 months to get a firm grip on what actually happened, and how it changed the course of my life. The person who changed it may not even know what was said or how it has affected me. For some strange reason it doesn’t seem to matter much to me. For in my search for the reason, I found that no matter what the reason, I could forgive them. Forgiveness is a powerful force that sets the one who gives it free. The one who has been forgiven has the choice then to forgive themselves or harbor the guilt.

My road came to a sudden and almost immediate change when I finally and despite my hard head, let God take over the road crew. The bumps and dips of life are still there and some still have a profound impact but they are far fewer and less severe. I guess what I am trying to relay is this….we all have a broken road and at one point in time we probably dug a hole in someone else’s road. The reason doesn’t matter much. The most important thing to remember I think is when we decide to forgive, not only do we smooth out our own road, we patch the road for so many others in return.