Let Somebody Off The Hook

After church on a Wednesday night I got my kids in our van and began to back out of the parking space when…”Crash!!”

Car Damage

“Oh no!”  I had backed right into someone’s car.  I pulled the van back into the space, got out and assessed the damage.  The car I hit had some paint damage on the bumper.  My bumper was damaged a bit worse.  Nothing huge, but I knew I needed to find the person who owned the car.

I entered the church and began asking people whose car this was.  It was embarrassing.  Why?  Well it would be embarrassing anyway, but it was especially embarrassing because I am the Pastor of my church.  Finally I found out who owned the car.  It was someone I had known for nearly a decade.  She and I had worked together on several committees over the years.  I knew her well.

She could tell I was upset that I had damaged her car.  I asked her to look at it and insisted that she get an estimate so that I could pay for the damage.  She assessed the damage and said it wasn’t bad and that she wouldn’t want to worry about it.  I argued and said I wanted to make it right.  She explained that the car was ten years old and she didn’t want to worry about some scratches.  She let me off the hook.

I was humbled by her kindness and left having experienced an expression of grace.

Just the other day, a young sophomore girl hit my son’s parked car at their high school (see the picture above).  The young girl was upset and crying after causing the damage.  My son comforted her and said it would be alright.  That afternoon I looked at the damage.  It was only some scratches (nothing serious, especially on a 16 year old car that has a few other wrinkles in it, if you know what I mean).

I called the father of the girl and said, don’t worry about it.  It was only a scratch.  I let him off the hook.

It felt good.  Someone had shown me grace and now I could do the same.  It was good.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  Many times it is the right thing to exchange insurance information, get estimates, and expect someone to make things right.  Nobody should feel bad about that.

But sometimes things are not really that serious and it just isn’t a big enough deal to make a big deal about.  Sometimes it is just easier and better to let someone off the hook.

Is there someone in your life that has crashed into something of yours (figuratively speaking)?  Is it something that you could easily let them off the hook for?

Sometimes we make too much over little things.  Maybe today you can have the privilege of letting someone off the hook.

Question:  Can you think of a scripture that challenges us to let people off the hook?  Share it with us.  You can leave a comment by clicking here.