Forgiveness

This is going to be brief, rambling, and only slightly relevant, but bear with me.



I have been confronted with the need to forgive. Certain people, whether I know them or not, have been brought to my mind in the context that the grudge I hold against them needs to leave. But it's not like it can just up and walk out. Tangible damage has been done and thus tangible action must be taken to mend that damage.



At first I was slightly put out that, as a Christian, I was commanded to forgive these people by whom I have been wronged. Forgiveness out of compulsion is not tangible. It's a wish that that wound will whisk itself into oblivion. In reality, it worms its way deeper into the heart as the heart begins to feel pretty good about the attempt at forgiveness.



Then I was reminded that, as a Christ-follwer, I was commanded to forgive these people by whom I have been wronged-the way that Christ forgave me. He absorbed the wounds I had inflicted on Him, not dodging them as they boomeranged out and back. He took in His own Body. And as a a Christ-follower who is growingly grateful for the incomprensible love shown to me, the command to forgive becomes and honor.



It is an honor (honor is not common or easy) to immitate the One that I admire most. It is an honor to set Me aside as He set Him aside. It is an honor to look that offense in the face, feel the full weight and pain it brings and slowly, surely, painfully, even agonizingly strip it of its power. It is an honor to die again and again with that wound and watch it die again and again until it is no more.

It is a joy to forgive.