Most of us are trying to find a safe place to fall apart and get free to be able to feel the way we really do. Look around – the world is filled with hurting people and right now, you may be one of them. It’s been hard.
I think back to what I thought the word free meant growing up in a red, white and blue world. Not that it was a pretty-world, just more do-able. I also think of how over time, my “free-thinking” is somehow supposed to be within the lines that others have drawn for me. Not easy.
So this is now – the real world which is a little crazier to navigate in a land of so much offense and so little forgiveness. All of us have been exposed to some hurt or offense by another and unfortunately we’ve been guilty of the same. Then it’s fair to say all of us either need to forgive or be forgiven. And you may have noticed, humans aren’t natural forgivers.
My mom (dear as she was) used the familiar generational phrase, “I can forgive, but I can’t forget” but throughout countless crushing happenings I’ve learned a better way to deal – we have to forgive because we can’t forget.
Yes, there are certain things impossible to blow off like dandelion seeds in the air. We can’t just click delete after a piece of life has been stolen by a dark offense. But neither can we get stuck in the violations that have been downloaded into our heart – so the answer must be let-it-go.
The genius lyric written by Kris and sung raw by Janis back in the 60s – freedom is just another word for nothin’ left to lose meant something entirely different to me at the time than it does decades of life later. Today we’re too bound in opinions and our long-ago woundedness –so friends, the only just another word for freedom has to be forgiveness. It’s a tricky mix to have everything to lose and everything to gain.
We may all have different things to forgive but the command to do it is the same. Aside from the bitter prison that shuts us in when we can’t forgive is also the wall created between us and the One who calls us to freedom.
Unforgiveness is like fertilizing thorns to grow and keep us entangled in someone’s mess.
No matter how huge, how long ago, or how recent the offense – in this moment we can step into sacred freedom because forgiveness says to the offender, I’m beyond your reach.”
Happy Independence in Christ ~ be beyond the reach . . .
Bear with one another and if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive . . . Colossians 3:12-
Verna
Thank you Verna for sharing these truths. One thing I’ve discovered also, is the need to not only forgive other offenders, but myself as well.
After all, if God has forgiven me, who am I to withhold forgiveness, even for myself.
Praise God for the promise found in 1 John 1:9:
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is where true freedom begins! Happy 4th of July my friend.
Yes and thank you Glenda because sometimes the hardest one to forgive is — us. True freedom! And have the happiest birthday on this independence day, dear friend!
“the real world which is a little crazier to navigate in a land of so much offense and so little forgiveness. All of us have been exposed to some hurt or offense by another and unfortunately we’ve been guilty of the same. Then it’s fair to say all of us either need to forgive or be forgiven. And you may have noticed, humans aren’t natural forgivers.”
Oh if we could just grasp the truth and consequences of this. So much offense. Too little forgiveness. We need Jesus. Because He will transform out hurting heart to a grateful one. Grateful for His forgiveness, given even when we don’t deserve it. One who is forgiven much, loves much. And love is what we need most!
I saw a meme that had Forest Gump sitting on a bench with his box of chocolates that said, “And then for no particular reason, everyone decided to be offended by absolutely everything.” That is what it feels like. I know this is spiritual warfare, and satan is good at what he does to divide us. I’m praying for revival, so profound that it eclipses every past revival to date.