“It’s too late to apologize,” Timbaland sang to his girlfriend who he couldn’t trust any longer.

The 2007 song struck a chord. How many of us have people in our lives that we can’t imagine forgiving? How many of us have people in our lives we can’t imagine apologizing to? We can’t imagine apologizing to them, because of that, or right now. Better to just try to make it up, or smooth it over, we tell ourselves.

“It’s too late to apologize.”

We live in an apology-averse culture. We are allergic to repentance and equally allergic to forgiveness.

Think about it. When was the last time someone repented to you? I mean, truly repented?

Not long ago a congregant apologized to me. The email began this way (I’ve tweaked it only to protect the one who sent it), “I might have been a little harsh in my email.. I had a very bad week…” In further communication, the individual referenced their apology. Internally I scratched my head. “When did they apologize?” I dug back through the email thread and saw those phrases. That is what they were referencing.

“I might have…” followed by an excuse is no apology.

I don’t say that to attack the individual I am referencing. In fact, I completely understand why, given the slipperiness of our hearts, and in our culture, they would think that they had apologized.

We live in an apology-averse culture.

We are allergic to repentance and equally allergic to forgiveness.

Think about it? When was the last time someone repented to you? I mean, truly repented?

The last time a congregant apologized to me, the email began this way (I’ve tweaked it only to protect the one who sent it), “I might have been a little harsh in my email.. I had a very bad week…” In further communication, the individual referenced their apology. Internally I scratched my head. “When did they apologize?” I dug back through the email thread and saw those phrases. That is what they were referencing.

“I might have…” followed by an excuse is no apology.

I don’t say that to attack the individual I am referencing. In fact, I completely understand why, in our culture, they would think that they had apologized.

In our culture, we learn to apologize with phrases that look like this:

· “Sorry.”

· “I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

· “I know I shouldn’t have done that, but you shouldn’t have…”

· “I wouldn’t have done that if…”

· “That wasn’t my best.”

None of those are apologies.

By not learning how to apologize, we miss out on good’s purposes for our hearts and for the possibility of true reconciliation.