| Matthew 6:12 – “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” |
We all have them—those moments when someone wrongs us, betrays us, or deeply disappoints us.
Maybe it was a cutting word.
An unfair decision.
A wound that still aches.
We know forgiveness is the right path.
But sometimes… it just feels too hard.
That’s something Mike May understands. His story doesn’t come from a pulpit or a book—it comes from the street. Because Mike May is a police officer.
In 1975, Officer May was dealing with a suspect named Wendell Beard. Beard slipped out of his handcuffs and jumped from a second-story window at the police station—14 feet to the concrete below. Mike May followed.
It was a split-second decision. One he’d come to live with.
The fall shattered his right ankle and broke his left heel. Though he returned to duty, the injury never fully healed. Eventually, he retired on disability, went to law school, and tried to move on. He didn’t give Beard much thought after that.
But 43 years later, something stirred.
May decided to look him up.
He tracked Beard down to a prison near Cumberland, Maryland. And instead of bitterness… he wrote him a letter.
“I suggested that, at his age, perhaps he might be able to exert a positive influence on the younger inmates,” May said.
That led to a phone call.
And that’s when Beard brought up the Unger case—a 2012 ruling by the Maryland Court of Appeals. It found serious flaws in the instructions judges had been giving to juries for decades. That ruling gave Beard—and dozens of others—the chance for a new trial.
In August 2015, a Baltimore judge granted Beard “time served.”
And in the courtroom that day—supporting his release—was Mike May.
Think about that.
The man whose career had been altered by Beard’s escape… came to support his freedom.
May could have said, “I was the victim. I paid the price.”
But instead, he said:
“Wendell was trying to get away from me, not hurt me. I decided to jump out of the window. My leg still bothers me—but at least some of that has to do with my age.”
It took time. But time gave him perspective.
And in that space, blame gave way to grace.
That’s what makes the prayer Jesus taught so powerful… and so difficult:
“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
We recite it easily. But do we really mean it?
Would we hold others to the same standard we hope God will apply to us?
Life is too short to hold onto every hurt.
Too fragile to let bitterness call the shots.
Too precious to spend it pointing fingers.
So maybe today… it’s time.
Time to forgive.
Time to let go.
Time to stop carrying a weight that only drags you down.
After all, the freedom we give may be the freedom we gain.
–Robert G. Taylor
robertgtaylor.com
