Sometimes saying sorry just isn’t enough. That’s true when the words used to say sorry are hollow or come without sincerity.

It’s not hard to ascertain a person’s genuineness when saying sorry; we pick it up in their voice,  their facial expression, their posture and gestures.

When someone is truly sorry, it’s often easy to forgive them. Our heart goes out to them for we see the pain they are in. Even though they may have inflicted pain on us, we are moved to ease the pain they are in.

But when the words used to express their sorrow come out as a memorized line that they have rehearsed for a play they are starring in, well, it takes more than words to prove there is depth to the expression that lies beneath the thin wavelengths of sound coming from their mouths.

Sometimes sorry doesn’t make the mistake go away.

This week I had a credit card declined when making a purchase. That was just a little embarrassing.

So when the credit card company called to say sorry, I wanted to know they were more than just Easter chocolate words … you know, fully formed chocolate outside shell, but hollow on the inside.

The company representative on the other end of the line must have said he was very sorry about a half a dozen times. But every time I heard the word, I thought to myself “Oh, that makes it all better now – NOT!”

You see, I had just received the credit card no more than four days before this incident. I got the card because it’s my latest scheme to get a new cell phone. With every dollar purchase I make with this card I get two points that I can use towards purchasing a new phone.

But even better than that, I got 5,000 points for just taking the card. It was a no-brainer for me! I slipped my old MasterCard out of my wallet and slipped the new one in. Awesome! – and we had a large purchase to make right away which would get me a lot of points.

We needed a new hot water tank so it made perfect sense to me to put this on my new Rogers MasterCard and get 2,000 points for the purchase, rather than put it on Lily’s PC MasterCard and get about the same number of points towards groceries.

What do you need food for anyway when you have a chance at reducing the price of a new phone?

Not only was having my purchase declined an embarrassment, ending up missing out on all those points that went to Lily’s grocery bill really fried me.

So I said to the guy on the other end of the phone, after his 5th or 6th “sorry for the inconvenience”, “How about you give me some reward points on my card?”

Apparently, he was only authorized to express hollow words. For a truly sorry gesture on the part of the credit card company, he would have to have his supervisor give that.

To be continued . . .

Here’s the thing: When we have sinned, we may be sorry before God, but our words better not be hollow. You see, being sorry for sin also means you have to do something about it, and that involves not continuing in your sin. Be sure that when you ask God for forgiveness you mean it, by way of ensuring you take steps not to commit that sin again.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How have you felt when someone’s sorry words are nothing more than hollow? Leave your comment below.