Forgiveness

A relevant message for the new year:

Forgiveness is about freedom. Freedom from the bondage that holding a grudge ties you to. It's not about condoning what was done. It's about not letting the wrongdoing hold you back from moving forward, being great, being free.

When you forgive your father for being an alcoholic and neglecting you as a child you are not telling him it was okay what he was doing. You are saying he is no longer the excuse to why you are an alcoholic and beating your child now. You are taking responsibility for your life, your actions. You are freeing yourself from the bondage to your father's ways and your past experiences. Once you forgive you can now move forward. Become better. Be a better person. A better parent to your child. You are free! (example taken from the movie Pay it Forward and Helen Hunt forgiving her mother)

When you forgive a neighbor for stealing from you or spreading rumors behind your back you are not condoning the action. You are not giving him/her the right to do it again. You are freeing yourself from that grudge, that bondage. You are accepting what has already happened, something you have no control over, and are allowing yourself to move forward, to live on. How you respond to events has a greater impact on your life and those around you than the events themselves. We could allow those events we have no control over to bog us down, hold us back or we could forgive and take responsibility of the things we do have control over. Move forward. Live on.

And maybe the beauty of Christ's forgiveness to us is that we can then forgive ourselves. We don't have to hold ourselves in bondage to our old ways. Those old sins don't have to be a part of our lives anymore. We can forgive ourselves and move forward, become better.

Forgiveness is part of God's transformation in us (see post Transformation). When we forgive others and ourselves we are being made perfect in Christ's likeness - we are maturing.