There it was. This GREAT BIG opportunity, a choice, to give grace or condemnation after a HUGE disappointment. Not to mention, it was on the heals of a month filled with opportunities to express deep-heart forgiveness for others in our circle in moments when demands and expectations could have legitimately been made. The crooked form sitting before me, afraid to look at me, expecting what was always expected and received from others in the form of ridicule and berating... my heart broke and gushed and the cross never felt so close as it did at that moment.
Forgiveness.
What I thought would be difficult to give, simply flowed out. How could I
not give it and spread it abundantly. No wrong was so wrong that I couldn't.
Forgiveness.
The hardest simplest thing to do in our lives is to forgive, especially issued to the worst in a situation. Among the biggest most powerful concepts, right up there with love and grace.
As I look ahead, after a month of roller-coaster heartache and unbelievable travesty, I can't help but see the tie between gratitude and forgiveness. Like the blinding brightness of
light when one has sat in dark, is the paramount of gratitude once forgiveness has been gifted and graced.
God through Paul commands:
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
- Ephesians 4:32
Jesus himself provides a staunch warning which should make even the most devout, shutter and take stock:
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive yours.
Matthew 6:14-15
How do we do this thing called forgiveness? Don't we have every right to be hurt, to feel betrayed, to want to hold on and expect reconciliation or recompense?
Sure, but, didn't Jesus also? He was lied to and about, he was betrayed, he was mistreated and deceived, he was beaten and tortured for crimes he did not commit and, ultimately, he died a gruesome and tortuous death he did not deserve. His only response?
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
- Luke 23:34a
Forgiveness.
So, what
exactly has any one person done to me that I just
can't forgive? Um...... yeah, I can't think of a thing which deserves my time, energy, or heart to harbor. Suddenly, forgiveness and grace become much easier.
I love how God puts it through Paul:
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing
with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving
each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
- Colossians 3:13-15
After forgiveness we get dressed! We
put on love and we
let peace of Christ RULE and then?
Be thankful.
We may not
be thankful that we were hurt or betrayed or let down or... pick your verb. However, we can have gratitude in lessons learned, gratitude things weren't worse (they can always be worse), gratitude Christ teaches us grace and forgiveness, gratitude that we are just sojourners and this is not our home, gratitude that suffering and hurt will not last forever. If you have put on love and LET the peace of Christ rule in your heart, you
will find gratitude for
something!
I pray, no matter what you are walking out today or may be walking out ahead, you will find deep-heart forgiveness for any and all actions which may have taken stabs at your heart and that in the practice of forgiveness, you find deep gratitude you can live in and walk out.
Blessings,
