Recently Steve Harvey sat down with Miss Columbia. Harvey had mistakenly named her as Miss Universe when she was actually first runner up and Miss Philippines had been the true winner. I was not watching the pageant that evening but it didn’t matter because I, along with everyone else, heard it over and over on every media source.
Harvey sat down with Miss Columbia on his talk show and was able to ask for her forgiveness face to face.
Both people talked about how painful the moment was. Harvey said for all the sleepless nights he had, he felt terrible knowing that things were worse for her. While she did acknowledge her own sleepless nights, she did forgive him and even was able to joke about it telling him he needed to learn how to read.
What was intriguing to me was how others were handling this mistake. Harvey shared that he had received numerous death threats and Miss Columbia had been repeatedly advised to sue Steve Harvey over what he had done. Now, since I had not been watching the pageant, I had not actually seen “the moment.” I went back and watched the video of him announcing Miss Columbia as the winner and then a few minutes later announcing she was actually the first runner up. Miss Philippines was called forward as the winner and they had to remove the sash and crown to give to her. It was bad. Gut-wrenching bad. It was the kind of mistake that makes you feel for everyone involved. But – it was an accident. A terrible accident that, but for the grace of God (and the fact that I am not an internationally recognized celebrity) could happen to me.
We don’t handle accidental mistakes very well in our society. We want someone to blame. We want someone to pay. We believe that bad things shouldn’t happen. They shouldn’t, but they do. And one of the greatest revelations as to our true character happens when we face these kind of mistakes. If we are the party at fault, how quickly will we admit our wrongdoing and ask forgiveness? If we were the victim, how quickly do we offer forgiveness and move on?
One of the things that we all have in common is that we have all had our Steve Harvey moments as well as our Miss Columbia moments (figuratively speaking…). Neither one feels good. But, we all also know that offering and receiving forgiveness is what can re-unite us in the wake of a painful mistake. And when we are part of the act of forgiveness – it highlights the very best of our character.
