Consequences of Actions

There’s a story told of a father whose son repeatedly caused trouble and chaos in the family. After each painful incident, he would come to his father, say, “I’m sorry, Dad,” and his father would forgive him. But the boy seemed cavalier about his sins. He acted as if he felt entitled to forgiveness, as if all one has to do is say, “I’m sorry,” and the incident is over as if it never happened. The young man seemed to have no awareness of the suffering his sin and rebellion caused his mother and father.

So the father said to the son, “Let’s go out to the garage. I want to show you something.” In the garage, the father took a hammer and nail, and he pounded the nail into the garage wall. Then he handed the hammer to his son and said, “Now, son, I want you to pull out the nail”

The son shrugged, used the claw end of the hammer, and pulled out the nail.

The father said, “That’s like forgiveness, isn’t it? When you do something wrong, it’s like pounding in a nail. Forgiveness is when you pull the nail out again.”

“Yeah,” the son said. “I can see that.”

“Fine,” said the father. “Now, I want you to take that hammer and pull out the nail hole.”

The startled young man said, “But I can’t make the hole go away!” And then his father’s meaning became clear. Forgiveness can erase the offense, but it cannot erase the consequences. Sin and folly always produce consequences that do not go away, even by forgiveness.

Ray C. Stedman, For Such A Time As This: Secrets of Strategic Living from the Book of Esther, pg.55-56.