Past tense of reconcile. It is to restore missed opportunities between friends and relations. I believe we all need to coexist as much as possible in harmony with one another and to try to get along. What can’t we? “Why can’t we be friends” is a song by War. It is a catchy tune and makes a lot of sense. Here’s a few sentences in the lyrics. “The color of your skin don’t matter to me as long as we can live in harmony. Why can’t we be friends. (repeated three more times) I’d kinda like to be the president so I could show you how your money’s spent. Why can’t we be friends.” In this day of dog eat dog, it seems to me we are determined to avoid reconciliation as much as possible. It is unhealthy to continue to hold grudges and pretend all is okay. Pride gets in the way.
We should not hold people by human standards as we would all fail the test. All of us are weak and subject to actions that we may regret soon after the act. All you have to do is turn on the idiot box called a TV and find an channel that conforms to your opinions. They make it easy to watch and listen according to your perspective on current affairs. It does not matter what the other side is saying because they are wrong, in you not so humble opinion. This non-reconcilable phenomena is a symptom of our illness. What is our illness? Resistance to spiritual guidance at all cost. An alcoholic is only able to recover after acknowledgement of their affliction. An angry human unwilling to be reconciled is like that alcoholic. Until they acknowledge their faults, they will not be able to move forward. Many humans consider it a weakness to submit to spiritual guidance. That is what holds most people back from living a better more peaceful life. We hold ourselves to human standards instead of higher standards. “If anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation…All these new things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ who gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” God does not count our sins against us if we become part of the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:17-19)
How do we become part of the message? We look beyond ourselves and become a new creation in Christ. I see politicians all of the time standing before an audience apologizing for what they have done in the past. Is the apology a true effort to be reconciled or is it just a ploy to get sympathetic votes? Even worse than an insincere apology, is someone standing in front of an audience trying to justify their selfish actions. I believe in forgiveness, if the person being forgiven has truly repented. A son goes away and ruins his life and his father’s inheritance is spent like water. He realizes he has really messed up his life. Instead of asking for another handout, he humbles himself to admit he is not worthy to be called a son. He returns to his father only to ask for a job. What happens to the son who came truly repenting? The father celebrates the reconciled son as once lost but now found. (Luke 15:11-32)
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