The name of the first chapter is "God, I'll take the Mercy, but give the idiot who cut me off in traffic Justice"! The chapter is based on:
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. - Matthew 5:7
As you can guess from the title of the chapter, it deals with Mercy & Justice. It deals with how we as christians often want others to be judged by God but when it comes to just faults, we want God to pour out his mercy on us.
Shawn talks about three levels of forgiveness:
- The first level is where we say we forgive the person that has hurt us but we really don't let go of the hurt and pain.
- The second level is where we forgive and forget.
- The third level or the level where you get hit by the wasabi-punch. This is where we start looking through God's eyes. We realize that we ourselves are in need of his mercy and that we ourselves had to be forgiven by God for the things we have done against Him!
Forgiveness has to be something that goes beyond the way we "feel". Forgiveness is a choice and at times even though it can be very tough, it is still something that we are called by God to do and He is hear to help us with it! It is a great reminder for everyone of us. No matter where we are in life this is something that needs to be something that we cannot neglect.
In the rest of the book Shawn looks at 6 other saying of Jesus that pack a Wasabi-punch to them! He does a good job weaving in personal stories to better explain the content. If you ever wondered about the hard sayings of Jesus or wondered if Jesus was really serious about some of the things that he said, I think reading this book will do you a lot of good.
But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. - Luke 6:27-28
