“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

Mound Of Forgiveness

From perfect games to no-hitters to the rookie phenoms Major League Baseball has witnessed many commendable feats throughout it’s storied history but all take a formative backseat to the performance of forgiveness exemplified by Detroit Tiger’s hurler Armando Galarraga back on June 2, 2010.  

In the history of the league, over the course of more than a century’s worth of games, there have only been 23 perfect games…EVER! No runs. No walks. No hits. No errors. Twenty-seven batters up, and down. To say that it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is a proverbial understatement— it’s the pinnacle of any pitcher’s accomplishment. Yet for Galarraga, needing only one more out, he was on the cusp of becoming just the 22nd player at that time, to ever record perfection. Then came the illustrious and erroneous “safe” call by the first base umpire. To no fault of his own, Galarraga lost out on the chance of being a part of history.

But Galarraga was part of a different kind of history that day; his grace-filled response following the game personified forgiveness in a public display that the sports world may never know again.

There are moments in life that unfavorably occur: jobs are lost, people die, and families are broken apart—often as a result of another’s rash decision. Your response in those instances is critical to your character growth. You have a choice to how you will respond in those moments— regardless if you are the offended or the offender—you do have a choice. You can’t undo anything you or another has already done, but you can face up to it. You can seek or offer forgiveness. And let God do the rest.

— MATT DUNN, ATHLETES IN ACTION