No Fault Policy

This week has been trying as I’ve struggled with what it means to love in the area of “Not holding a record of wrongs”. How can we actually live like this? How can we actually LOVE like this? It doesn’t make sense. Am I supposed to forget everything done to me? Should the church focus solely on creating a scientific device that can search for grudges or complaints in my mind and erase the information so I no longer feel that way? Obviously, this is not the case. God doesn’t want me to be less aware, but more aware. The more I am wronged, the more opportunity I have to love. So how do I do this?

I woke up today and asked God to show me for the tenth time this week, "Please God, show me something!" He finally responded, or at least I finally heard His response. He said, “NO FAULT”. That’s it. He didn’t explain it. He didn’t expand. He just said “NO FAULT” and I know it was God because it didn’t relate to anything else I was thinking and it came out of nowhere.

NO FAULT.
In New York State, we have a policy for car accidents called No Fault. In an accident, someone can still technically be “at fault” because the police will issue tickets based on who caused the accident, but the person at fault will not be held responsible for the other person’s medical bills. If you are in an accident, and someone else is at fault, their insurance company is not responsible for you. Your own company has to pay your medical bills, which is why EVERY New York driver must have insurance. You have to cover your own butt if you get hurt.

How does that relate to LOVE?

I think not holding a record of wrongs doesn’t mean it’s never someone else’s fault. Sometimes it really is, and the judgment from the higher authority is still there. The ticket may still be issued by God, the ruling may be made. But I can not hold the offender at fault. I am not allowed to demand that they pay my hospital bills, or in other words, pay for my pain. They are not responsible to make up for the pain that they’ve caused me. I need to release this “right” in my heart and mind. I need to instill a No Fault policy in my heart towards those who wrong me.

The beauty of it is this: When I release them, I am released.

It’s the same as the chains I found myself in when I chose to walk in anger instead of love. Unforgiveness, or believing someone owes me a debt, puts me in chains or bindings. I am bound up in such a way that I am tied to the person I won’t forgive.

We think of forgiveness as releasing someone else, but when we forgive, we’re really releasing ourselves.

Love is selfless, so it’s full of grace and forgiveness.

I keep looking at all these Love attributes in the sense that if I follow them, it will be better for all of those around me. And it’s true, it will impact them, but it will also impact me. My life will be better when I walk in Love instead of bitterness, fear, resentment or anger, because I will be FREE.

That’s the point of “Love does not hold a record of wrongs”…Freedom.