The Grace To Let Go.
I find it very hard to forgive.About a month ago, I was deeply hurt by someone I used to be really close to. I think it felt more like heartbreak than just being offended, and yes I’ll admit I was "sad" for a while.
As much as I wanted to forgive this person, I could not.Then, recently, a notification popped up on my phone (it was from the YouVersion app). Normally, I'd just ignore, but this time, I opened it. And there it was.... a message about "Forgiveness".
("Forgive As The Lord Forgave You"
When someone else hurts you,it can be hard to know how to navigate the situation and extend forgiveness. Jesus showed what forgiveness looked like when he died on the cross. And because he has forgiven us, we can forgive others too.)
When I read it, I was pissed!Like why should I be the one to forgive? I was the one who was hurt.But then I remembered, Jesus forgives me every single time,so I just let go.
And trust me, I felt lighter and relieved. Like I had just dropped a heavy load I didn’t even realize I was still carrying.So... as Christians, we have to learn to forgive those who hurt us.
A lot of us still struggle with forgiveness because we’re still nursing the pain. But the Bible tells us in "Ephesians 4:32" (Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.)
Forgiving someone doesn’t mean you have to talk to them again.And not talking to them doesn’t mean you still hold a grudge.Sometimes, letting go is just about protecting your peace and choosing yourself.
Learn to always choose yourself, because at the end of the day, only YOU can love YOU the way YOU deserve to be loved....
So true! 🔥
#161: On Forgiveness
Apr 12
I've heard forgiveness described as an act of self-care. By forgiving, you are expunging the festering source of hurt that is eating you alive, freeing you from the source of your burden and allowing you to progress past the humiliation, pain, and/or betrayal; however, I remain sceptical. By forgiving, you are letting the person or people who did you wrong off the hook, in essence giving them carte blanche to repeat the behavior in the future—no harm, no foul, right? I take issue with the lack of karmic imbalance inherent in this particular notion of "forgiveness". I refer back to Newton's Third Law of Motion, which states that every action has an opposite and equal reaction; in this sense, harm to one body must be revisited upon the source, and therefore, forgiveness as it is commonly understood is unscientific by its very nature. Perhaps we could redefine forgiveness along a spectrum, where the opposite poles on the plane are represented by the diametric opposites of mercy and justice. When we show mercy, we forgive unconditionally. This is viewed as virtuous from the perspective of, say, a "good" Christian, as it reflects the sacrifice of their lord and savior, who gave his own life so that the sins of his believers would be forgiven. By contrast, justice is a means of retribution whereby those same sins are forgiven only by trial and commensurate punishment. When a band of pirates in the Aegean Sea captured a young Roman nobleman named Gaius in the first century B.C., the captive swore that upon his ransom, he would immediately raise a fleet and return to put the pirates to death—and, sure enough, he did just that. Did this young man forgive his captors? Not exactly, but in avenging the indignity he suffered at their hands, he put his world back in balance. After all, the whole point of forgiveness is to put your mind at ease: to "get over it" and "move on". What is the appropriate means? Do you choose the Christ-like, self-sacrificial path, spilling your own blood for others out of an innate sense of goodness? Or do you, like Caesar, tirelessly imagine the screams of your enemies as they're nailed to the cross? Now: are you ready to forgive?