Story of Forgiveness

To keep this story of forgiveness short, I am going to refrain from using fluff and extra words.  The following story is true and I hope it leaves you as awe-inspired as it left me.   

He’s about 35 years old and stands about 5’8.   He’s had a career in bounty hunting, private investigating and process serving for approximately 20 years.  He’s on a typical routine serve where a father is about to get notice of losing his parental rights of visitation for his daughter.  On any call dealing with a minor, the police are called for backup.  John makes his call and waits for his backup.  The police seem to be taking longer than usual, so John makes the call again and is informed that they are on their way.  He then decides to go ahead and serve his papers.  He knocks on the door and the recipient answers.  He proceeds with the process.  Due to the content of the process he is to read the details to the recipient.

He begins to read.  Everything seems to be going fine until he gets the point of informing the father that his visitations rights are to be terminated. (The father is a crystal-meth addict.)  John looks up from the paper to be met square in the face with a gun.  Several seconds pass and the father pulls the trigger…  Nothing happened…  The gun did not fire.  John proceeds to get the gun away from the father and “hurt the guy pretty badly”.  Congruently, the police show up.  John hands the gun to the police and informs them that it is not loaded.  An ambulance is called and the father is treated for his injuries.  He is later put into the back of the police car. 

At this point the daughter comes out of the house and sees the whole scene.  She is about 10 years old.  John walks over to the young girl and apologizes for hurting her daddy.  The young one replies, “It’s okay…  Maybe now he can get some help.”  John then walks over to the police cruiser and requests they roll down the window to speak to the father.  John proceeds to apologize to him as well. 

Afterward the police officers start to harass John.  “Dude!  What’s up with you?  You  getting all soft on us!  That guy tried to kill you!  And by the way, the gun was loaded.  The bullet was chambered…  It was a misfire.”

To this day (even knowing the gun was loaded), John stands behind his apology.   He was doing his job and defending himself, but he felt he owed the guy an apology for beating him up so badly.  He felt he could’ve handled the situation differently and felt an apology was in order.  He recognized his “bad” in the situation and was quick to own his part.  What John was able to do, even when his life had been threatened, was an amazing act of forgiveness.

It’s fascinating and amazing to me how a mere 10 minutes in time can affect so many lives.  A terribly ugly scene that could have had a very different ending, in contrast raised the consciousness of so many.  One man chose to recognize and own his behavior, put aside his pride and fear and walk in the light of forgiveness. 

I’m honored to say I know John personally.  He has transitioned out of a childhood of hell (take my word for it) into an adulthood of peace and healing.  If you knew his story, you might not think it possible. 

At any time, at any moment, on any day, we can choose to walk a life of peace.  We can choose healing for ourselves.  We can choose forgiveness.  Forgiveness sets us free…  Not the person who did us wrong…

Namaste’