Lay Not This Sin to Their Charge

The Wound

Stephen names this prayer in the actual, literal middle of his own martyrdom, worth holding as this book’s own most extreme picture of forgiveness, not offered from safety after the harm had ended, but spoken while genuinely, actually being stoned, the same pattern Christ himself modeled from the cross.

Notice lay not this sin to their charge, worth examining directly, Stephen’s own final words, not personal complaint or even personal peace alone, but this specific, outward-facing request, forgiveness extended toward his own actual killers, in his own actual, final moment.

This is worth holding as this whole book’s own extreme boundary, not necessarily prescribing identical circumstance for your own situation, but worth trusting as genuine testimony that forgiveness this comprehensive, extended even here, is actually, genuinely possible, not merely theoretical but historically, actually demonstrated.

Whatever forgiveness currently feels genuinely impossible in your own situation, receive today Stephen’s own extreme testimony, not as guilt for whatever your own forgiveness has not yet fully reached, but as genuine hope that this level of forgiveness is actually, historically possible, worth trusting as available.