The At-Bat That Forgiveness Made Possible

On June 17, 2015, Chris Singleton was a freshman outfielder at Charleston Southern University with big league dreams ahead of him. That evening, a gunman walked into Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and murdered nine people during a Bible study — including Chris's mother, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton.

The next day, while the world reeled in horror, nineteen-year-old Chris Singleton stood before cameras and said, "Love is always stronger than hate." In the courtroom, family after family of the victims looked the killer in the eye and spoke words of forgiveness. Chris chose to carry that same grace forward. He did not let bitterness end his season. He returned to the diamond, kept playing, and in 2017 the Chicago Cubs drafted him.

Chris later said his mother had taught him that holding onto hatred was like drinking poison and expecting someone else to get sick. He chose to set the burden down — not because the man who killed his mother deserved it, but because Chris understood that forgiveness is not a verdict on the offender. It is a liberation of the one who forgives.

The Apostle Paul wrote, "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32). Forgiveness does not mean the wound never happened. It means the wound no longer controls your future. Chris Singleton stepped back into the batter's box because he refused to let evil have the final at-bat. The God who forgave us asks us to do the same — not in our own strength, but in His.