Forgiveness

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:17-19

I couldn’t help but think how difficult forgiving and reconciling can be for me, and probably for many people, after reading a heart-wrenching story in Tuesday’s sports section of the local newspaper. It was a Washington Post feature on Capitals’ enforcer Donald Brashear and his estrangement from his alcoholic father and his mother who put him in a foster home at the age of 7. I’m not a fan of fights in hockey, so I haven’t had a flattering opinion of Brashear. But reading about his very tough childhood I came to a better understanding of him. He has chosen to cope by closing the door on both his parents and given the details in the article it’s not hard to understand his reasons. But both his parents expressed what appeared to be sincere and deep remorse at what happened early in his life so I couldn’t help but think that if he could bring himself to forgive them it would possibly free him of many of his demons.

A few years ago I read a book by Angelo Dundee, boxing coach to Mohamed Ali, Joe Fraser and Sugar Ray Leonard (among others) titled My View From The Corner. In it, Dundee talks about the famous Congo bout “Rumble in the Jungle” between Ali and Fraser, describing Fraser as a bitter, angry man even before his defeat in Africa. What I found inspiring was how years later Fraser had embraced Christianity and staged one of the most remarkable come backs in boxing history, while in his forties no less, and Dundee’s accounting of how peaceful Fraser appeared in comparison with the man he was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Now, every time I see Joe Fraser’s placid, happy face on TV commercials promoting his cooking grill, I can’t help but wonder what was the forgiveness he gave or received that put his demons to rest.