When The Laughter Stops, With Nancy

Felicity was in a hurry. She was walking down the long hall on a mission. She had 45 minutes left before she must be back at work. She rounded a corner and heard a group of people talking.

She slowed her steps, and suddenly she heard her name. She thought they were calling her into their conversation, until she heard the next words. They were in a conversation about her and they were laughing. They were laughing about her writing, about her pain, and about her desire to travel the world. The information was shared as a prayer request, with many people including the people in the conversation.

Felicity decided she would turn around and quickly walk away, but it was to late. Someone in the group saw her standing with sadness on her face. Instead of retreating, Felicity made a courageous choice.

She pushed back her feelings of embarrassment and continued to walk in the direction of the group.  She walked toward the group as if she was going to stop and chat. Instead she walked by, and simply said, "Hello friends," as they looked down at the ground. The laughter was now gone.

This is the short version of Felicity's story. Although it was difficult, Felicity made the decision to forgive, because if she did not forgive, moving forward with her life would be impossible.

**** Felicity is Nancy, the woman who now travels the world. She writes and leads a conference on relationships. Many times she smiles as she recalls this painful conversation from long ago. She understands in a deep way, how God pours out his grace upon her life in areas she does not deserve. ****


1 Corinthians 13, ESV

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.