We can't get through our lives without running across one or more Judases. People who are sure they know better, and if we'd only do it their way all would be well. People who are jealous of our successes. People who want to teach us a lesson. Jesus' response to betrayal and denial and death was to forgive. I guess that's why he's Jesus and I'm not. I find it much more difficult to forgive and move on. It's always a work in progress, and maybe why we need at least once a year to be reminded of what we are to be striving for.
O God, we have been wounded, and often by people who don't give it a second thought. But it weighs heavily on our hearts and minds as we try to move on. You have shown us the good and perfect way to respond to these events, but we are mostly far from perfect, and sometimes not even all that good. But the example remains ever before us. Give us healing in our hearts and minds that we can move on with the lives you intend for us. Let us be resurrected this year into the people you want us to be.