Eric’s Sunday Sermon; How to do Forfeiture

Forfeiture is the act of giving something up. Forfeiture can be voluntary or compulsory or even just a taking. Most people think all the worst about forfeiture and that is fair but inaccurate. There is legal and illegal forfeiture and there is good and bad forfeiture. I forfeited my rights to certain activities upon marriage. Again there was forfeiture when I had children. There are also horrible forfeiture programs from government that are basically abominable.

Stay at home can be called forfeiture as in compulsory. Yes we gave up or had our rights to socialize taken away. Freedom of association is a God given constitutional right. It cannot be taken in this manner. It is unconstitutional in so many ways. So in essence that forfeiture was/is voluntary by law. If not then it is an illegal taking of a right – forfeiture without due process. Our laws are our laws and we are a nation of laws. The courts and the attornys General are not doctors. Doctors demanded the taking away of rights and we let them. How that will wash out in history will be interesting. What is the next emergency that gives rights for a segment to take away from another segment of society? Moral decay?

Hey I gladly voluntarily gave up my rights. My choice. I complain not an inch. Besides we are having a blast in that we were well situated for such issues.

Perhaps the greatest love we can have for another is to give up our lives for them. The extreme is death, the routine is a way of life. Just know that as a writer I fully appreciate your giving up or forfeiting your time to read and think on this sermon. Some will forfeit more for me and leave a comment.

If you combine a healthy dose of love with a voluntary forfeiture it is by far the greatest of gifts. Your time and effort given freely to another in need is just so fantastic it gives me goosebumps. The age old question; “Do some suffer so that others may rise to the occasion and give us a glimpse of heavenly love?”. That is twisted but in the real very real. Let us vow to give what we can when we can and it is needed. Expecting nothing in return except maybe those goosebumps.

We will look at some other aspects of this forfeiture stuff from different angles.

Illegal government taking. This perhaps is one of the greatest crimes of all time. Again to the extreme, death penalty and in the norm just taking your property. Just? Well not justly but rather unjustly. Suppose a thief steals your stuff. He is duly charged and duly convicted of the theft. First you take away his freedom or maybe just his money as a fine and victim relief. Then you force him to forfeit what he stole and return it to the rightful owner. Those are all very legitimate compulsory forfeitures. Suppose the government thinks he is a thief and without conviction they take property, money or freedoms away from the person thought to be a thief. By any rational standard that should be illegal. But it is generally a common practice by way of laws that allow your government to do it. I am not kidding here. Many billions of dollars worth of stuff and money has been taken this way every year. The Federal Government can seize property under 18 U.S.C. § 983. That is based on suspicion not conviction. That should be criminal.

People who are close to us can cause us to forfeit matters and things. Again it can be voluntary – good or involuntary, sometimes good and sometimes bad. We wonder if giving up something not good is really something we should be proud of. I gave up smoking voluntarily. I am all that proud of myself. Probably forfeiting something down right bad is really nothing to puff ourselves up about. Alcohol abuse, compulsive gambling, over eating, abusing others and so much more should be forfeited voluntarily through love for ourselves and others. Make no mistake abstaining is forfeiture of a right to do it. Is smoking a right?

I know a bunch of people who forfeited their interest in properties for the benefit of a family as a whole. Setting up trusts is a cool way to forfeit property and rights therein. It means you place them in a space where taking care of it is for the benefit of another.

501 (c) (3)s are a way of placing assets into a legal contraption where you forfeit any profit back into the charitable endeavor. (yes it can be abused, can’t everything)

So I hope that the above technical concepts set us into the right footing to think about loving forfeiture.

“I give my life to God”. That is not a crazy statement. Especially if you believe that God is Love. It means that you forfeit your will for God’s will. We certainly hope you can discern that and feel confident that you can if your focus and filter is love. Do not spend time looking for voices from the clouds, look to the heavens through love and the answers will flow like the rivers to the sea.

But be careful in this area. In order for it to be a loving forfeiture it must be born of freewill. Otherwise no matter where the mandate came from it is not a gift but rather a charge against the property. We simply cannot fall back on “I had to”, that is not “freely”. Yet if you say I had no choice for anything less would be not loving, then you stand on solid ground.

I suggest, and this must be tempered by knowing of my base anti-materialism, that if the thing in our hands causes legitimate angst to another forfeiture my be the best option. Not to say if another whines and wants something you give it to them out of hand.

So the beggar on the street comes to mind. Hey make no mistake begging for a living can be one heck of a tough job, so they actually work for a living looking at it that way. I wonder what they had to forfeit in order to get in that situation. Probably each story different and some with voluntary and some compulsory or an out right taking away.

In some cases people forfeit what is their right in order to take care of others. We call to mind servicemen and women and nurses and first responders. We should not fail to mention our donations either in person or through banking. Most offering plates are passed for good causes. Churches are stepping up to provide services during these hard times. Now that is proper forfeiture of a churches resources.

It is my hope that this strange look into forfeiture leads one to immediately see that real charity requires some sacrifice. Some sacrifice just plain stinks while other sacrifice is near on heavenly. I propose that in order to really love we must invest in that love, and that investment is best made by sacrifice. If you have some time read Luke 20:45-21:4 it will moisten your eyes.

I just spent some time sacrificing my time to write this. I think I sacrificed it for my pleasure. Not real charity. But hey if just one person gets a blessing from this then I would gladly forfeit more.