Forgiveness Is Freedom - for Everyone! Sample

The Rest of the Story

Janie proceeded to tell me that after her peaceful night’s sleep, she woke up on the next morning and her phone rang. The caller I.D. didn’t show a name, but the area code of the caller was from Janie’s home state, so she answered it. 

After she said, “Hello,” she heard a man’s voice say, “You prayed for me.” Janie realized right away that, out of the blue, it was the young man who had tried to rape her. 

You have to realize that it had been over a year since the incident, and Janie had had absolutely no contact with the young man since that night. She told me, “If I’d known it was him calling, of course I never would have answered it.”

She wanted to hang up, but he said it again, “You prayed for me.” So she asked him what he meant, and he proceeded to tell her.

Apparently, the night before (the very same day Janie had forgiven him), he had been in a terrible car accident. Paramedics managed to keep him alive, an ambulance took him to the hospital, and after emergency care he was checked into ICU. Not long after he was admitted, he was alone in his hospital bed and he said he heard a voice (you have to remember that this young man was not a Christian. But guess what? God can make Himself heard by anyone he wants to! I love that about him).

The voice said to him, “You are alive because Janie forgave you.”

Wait. What?! I have to say that when Janie told me that part of the story, I stared at her for a full 10 seconds with my mouth open! Could it really be that forgiveness not only set Janie free, but set the young man free too? 

The answer is yes! Now just think about that for a minute. What are the far-reaching ramifications of our choice to forgive? Or even — and this is a chilling thought — of our choice to not forgive.

Janie’s story ended in the best way possible. She was able to pray with her attacker over the phone, and he received Jesus as his savior. He met God in a very real, very life-saving way when Janie forgave him, and as a result, his destiny has been changed forever.