I know I am not the only one when I say that forgiveness is probably the hardest act to do. When people hurt me or have done me wrong, the last thing on my mind is forgiveness. I’ll probably subtweet about them, tell all of my close friends what they have done, or just sulk in bitterness and anger before I even think about forgiving them.
Although its so hard to accomplish, the few times that I have forgiven people, it has more than anything been more about me than them. When you forgive someone it frees your soul. These two men that appeared on Megyn Kelly Today’s show have exemplified what true forgiveness looks like.
Jameel McGee stopped by a local drug store before meeting his new born baby boy at the hospital for the first time. While he was walking out of the store, a man by the named of Andrew Collins stopped him in his tracks and asked him where the drugs were, also stating he knew he had the drugs. McGee was confused replying that he had nothing on him. While trying to walk away that was when Collins pulled out his handcuffs and arrested McGee.
The police officer Andrew Collins had received a tip that there was a drug dealer at that local drug store. Without having any lead that McGee was the suspect he arrested him, because he just looked the part. After arresting him, he found drugs in the center counsel of a car parked near the drug store. Again, assuming they belonged to McGee. Once he was arrested and sentenced to jail, the FBI eventually contacted Collins to tell him that the finger prints on the drugs did not match the man’s fingerprints that he had just sent to jail.
At this point Collins could have cleared everything in case up, but he chose to lie in the report and point all of the fingers back to McGee. Three years later Collins himself was arrested for possession of drugs, and McGee’s case fell through, allowing him to leave the jail.
Some time had passed by when the gentlemen met again. McGee took a trip to the local park, to meet his son for the very first time. That is where he spotted Collins once again. He walked up to the former police man and put out his hand asking him if he remembered him. He then asked Collins to please explain to his son why he had missed a part of his life. Collins replied with an apology, explaining that he was selfish and would make any lie to get ahead in his career back then, but he knew nothing he could say would make up for the time McGee lost with his son.
Soon later Mcgee joined a non profit that helps people find jobs. When singing up for a mentor to assist him in this next stage in his life, he had no idea that he would see Collins again. Much to both of their surprise, they were both randomly selected to be each others mentor and mentee.
Now the men are the best of friends and have written a book together called Convicted. They share with people that if it wasn’t for God, McGee couldn’t have forgiven Collins and Collins could not have changed and forgiven himself.
Forgiveness is hard to do, but so worth doing. You can see more of the incredible interview here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXFmK7VUfAE.