Let It Go Man!

Background: My team just won the Superbowl!!! But it is so bittersweet. My favorite player, who has a dark past, is retiring this year and gets to end it with a Superbowl ring and criticism about his past. If only everyone had the capacity to forgive.

Watching my boys win the big game was phenomenal. They played hard, they deserved to win. And I am convinced that they had to win because the person on the team who has been forgiven of much, represented God consistently and boldly, despite the consistent tongue lashing from haters. If God has forgiven someone, we should too. So today’s topic is forgiveness. A tough topic but one of importance.

The one scripture I will use as a reference happens to be about the P31 and her husband. It simply says that she brings him good and not harm. Anyone that has been in a relationship, whether it’s an intimate union, a friendship, a job related partnership or even parenthood, is well aware that a time will come when those relationships are strained. You may be the instigator or the victim, but the result is a strained relationship that requires forgiveness and/or compromise.

It says she will do him good and bring him no harm. When we don’t forgive people, or in other words, hold onto the hurt that we incurred from a bad situation, we bring additional pain on ourselves and those around us. The saying is very true, ‘hurting people hurt people’. The person that hurt you can ask for forgiveness and move on with life, while you are still hurting. Some of the things we go through in life leave crippling scars, but they are just that, scars.

Is forgiving easy? Well, I can’t answer that question, but I will tell you that it is a choice. Just like you choose which shoe to wear with an outfit, you choose whether or not you will forgive. When you choose to forgive, you choose to live, because unforgiveness will suck the life out you. It may take more than forgiveness to heal the hurt and heal the scars, but it is the first step to moving forward.

Do those around you and those you love good and not harm by forgiving those who trespass against you. It takes a true relationship with God to do this. He forgives even the worst of us, if we ask with a clean heart. It’s something that we as humans cannot fully conceive. Now, just because He forgives us doesn’t mean there will be no consequences for our actions. The same is true with those who trespass against you or if you are the trespasser. Your actions will still be accounted for in heaven and on earth. But let God be the judge and you go in peace knowing you have received or extended forgiveness, and that you will live to see another day.

Reference: Proverbs 31:12