Personal Revelation and the The Blessings of Forgiveness

Written by S. Bernards, to Elder BJ Bernards, on October 21, 2007

Elder B.J. (and family),

Thank you for sending your thoughts and love, as well as your learnings from the mission which have been so inspiring to us all. Thank you, also, for being such a good example for [my children].

Two recent events have taught me of God's mercy and care, and have helped me be reminded of the reality of his existence. May I share?

The first event is this: Three weeks before I finally found it again, I lost my wallet. And soon after loosing it I prayed that God would help me find it again, during the which prayer I felt an immediate assurance from the Spirit that I would find it. It was so surprising, then, that day after day it remained elusive! As each day went on and ended without my discovering the wallet's whereabouts, I found my patience wearing a little more thin, and my fears encroaching a little bit more on my faith. You see, I had a business trip to Utah scheduled, and I needed a driver's license to fly, and my corporate credit card to pay the expenses. Finally, on the Monday before the trip, my emotions reached a boiling point and I pleaded for an immediate solution, asking that I could have a miracle occur (in being guided to the wallet) so that I could share the experience with my children and thus teach them of God's reality and tender care. Immediately I felt/heard the thoughts: "Go to your closet!" So I went to my closet. "Look in your gym bag!"
"But," thought I, "I've looked through that gym bag a dozen times!" Nevertheless, I reached for the bag, and the first zipper I opened revealed the missing wallet. I was dumbstruck. "Julia," I exclaimed as I rushed out the door to the car for the drive to work, "I've got the family home evening lesson tonight! There's something that I want to share with the children about miracles!"

When I arrived at work I received an email from a colleague of South Korean heritage, who was recently converted to Christianity ([Protestant sect]) and who had asked me to be a spiritual mentor of sorts to help her learn about what Christianity was all about. (In Korea she grew up learning ancestral worship and the Buddhist philosophies, so the gospel of Jesus Christ was still very new for her). In her email she revealed that her Mom was dying of cancer and that over the weekend all of her family that had been living with her had flown to Georgia to be with her. She was lonely and afraid and without much hope, so I invited her to dinner, knowing that her friendship with Julia would likely bring her joy, hope, and a renewed perspective.

Dinner was great, and then family home evening began. For our friend (J-- K-- is her name), it was the first time she had ever experienced an in-home church service (aka Family Home Evening), and she shared with Julia and I that it was like being in "heaven on earth". During the story I shared with the children of my missing wallet, J-- listened transfixed and amazed--and I remembered that of all of the gospel principles that attracted her to Christianity, personal revelation topped her charts, and this story was evidence of the reality of personal revelation! As I bore my testimony that God loves us, and that he is very aware of our personal situations, and that he will help us in the time of our need if we ask him too, I received the knowledge that the timing of my wallet's disappearance & recovery was tied directly to J--'s needs. As a result, I felt both humbled and excited to be a tool in the Lord's hand to bring evidence of his existence to light.


The second event I'd like to share happened recently, as well, and is actually the third time in my life that a particular pattern has surfaced, namely: when you forgive someone, the Lord immediately blesses you, and sometimes with a big opportunity.

To explain, let me bring you back to 2001, when I worked for a new dot-com startup company that came to an abysmal end due to the founder of the company running away from the business with all of the remaining cash on hand. This was drastic for me because not only did the founder leave me bereft of a job, he also refused to pay my last month's wages! My emotions were very hot and angry towards this man, and thanks to the loving example of Julia and her challenge to "frankly forgive" him, I made the simple decision to drop my emotional burden into the Lord's keeping and to forgive him fully. Within days of doing so I received a call, out of the blue, from a consulting company in Florida, asking if I would be willing to take a great-paying consulting gig in Italy. Through prayer, Julia and I both received the knowledge that the blessing of this new job was a direct response to our willingness to forgive.

This pattern of being blessed for forgiving resurfaced again for the second time at the end of the consulting gig, when the consulting company took advantage of the lack of a written commitment to pay for our returning air fair, and took the thousands of dollars out of my last pay check. This, in effect, was an exact repeat of what the dot-com founder had just done to me! My last pay period's wages were stolen! Again, Julia loved me through my angry and upset emotions and challenged me to "frankly forgive" them. And again, I made the simple decision to drop my emotional burden into the Lord's keeping and to forgive them fully. Within days of doing so I received a call, out of the blue, from the CFO of the old dot-com company, stating that he and the CEO of the company had both secured a new job with the LHM automotive group, and had convinced the executives that the information systems needed a complete re-haul, and that they knew just the man to do it (and that he was just returning from a consulting gig in Italy...). And so there again, I was blessed with a new job opportunity immediately after being willing to forgive! There was no doubt in my mind that this second witness was a confirmation of the Lord's pattern.

Now that you have the context for what I'm about to describe, here is the third (and recent) time that this "forgiveness -> opportunity" pattern has surfaced in my life: Within [my employer's] headquarters is a woman who holds the authority (budget and procedural) for various "resource groups" (groups of employees aligned by cultural heritage/appreciation). As I had been asked to serve as an officer in one of those resource groups (the "Asian & Pacific Islander Resource Group"), I have come in contact this woman very frequently, and have gotten to know her predisposition towards inefficient bureaucratic policies in which her lone opinion overrides groups' desires, often to the detriment of all involved. Recently her power-struggles came to a head when she forced our resource group to go through her election process even though our members had voted to keep all officers in office (and if her desire was to rid the leadership team of the people with whom she butted heads, it worked, as the three team leaders who disliked her the most all stepped down from their post). Hearing the stories of these group leaders who stepped down served to heat up my emotions against this woman, as it seemed that she had a personal vendetta to fill, and that she used her position of power unjustly.

But then came my moment of truth when I was forced to decide between forgiving her and holding a grudge. The moment occurred at a black-tie gala banquet that Julia and I had been invited to attend, and it would have been very easy to pretend that I had not seen this woman across the ballroom. Yet perhaps because I was with Julia--and the fact that Julia has been so inspirational in my progress towards forgiving others--it was easy to make the simple decision to "frankly forgive" her. I walked Julia up to her to make the introduction, and cast my mind back on my interactions with the woman in order to share several points of her successes with Julia. The next week (this last Monday), I received a call from the woman...and what a change! She was kind and congenial, open and so friendly! And this was only the beginning of the blessings that the Lord decided to pour down. As I shared with you, the Lord has blessed me with new career opportunities each time I've come to a major moment of forgiveness, and this time was no exception! The very next day (Tuesday of this week) I had a chance encounter with the V.P. of New Store Format Development, and by the end of our short conversation he asked me to join his team (i.e., an internal job offer), stating that in order to convince me to join, he would give me the maximum possible promotion available under the H.R. regulations. (For some perspective, I heard from a colleague on his team that he has been inundated with about a dozen resumes a day from internal candidates who are all interested in leading the new store format strategy for [my company].)

And as if this weren't amazing enough, I received another job opportunity that makes me so excited I can scarcely control my breathing and beating heart: I've been asked to consider working directly for the CEO of [my company] (my boss's boss's boss's boss's boss's boss) as his right-hand man and strategic adviser. Granted, I'm the most junior (by far!) to make the short-list of 10 candidates, so the likelihood of me being selected may be remote (and it will be a miracle if I am selected!). However just to be named to this list is such a blessing and an honor.

So there you have it, two recent events that have taught me of God's mercy and care, and have helped me be reminded of the reality of his existence. I know that God lives, and that his commandments bring blessings worth far more than the cost of our obedience. I love you and am inspired by your service to our Heavenly Father. God bless you!

Love,

Your brother Sam