i am awake. i am alive.

By: thelovelylo

Aug 30 2006

Category: Uncategorized

2 Comments

“Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him. For to this end I also wrote, that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.” -II Corinthians 2:8-11 (NKJV)

to pardon is to forgive
(synonyms: absolve, accept, acquit, amnesty, clear, condone, discharge, exculpate, excuse, exonerate, free, give absolution, grant amnesty, justify, let off*, liberate, lifeboat*, overlook, release, remit, reprieve, rescue, spring*, suspend charges, tolerate, write off)

forgiveness is not easy. it requires so much more than maybe we think we can bear.
but i don’t think a lot of us realize what we are doing when we don’t forgive.
we are actually hurting ourselves.
this was recently brought up to me.
and although i knew that not forgiving someone could actually do more harm to myself than to the party involved,
i really had no idea of the extent of harm it could cause.
you can literally kill yourself slowly.
and truthfully, the person that you aren’t forgiving could be clueless or not even care about the pain that you’re enduring.

mmm hmm.

so… even though it’s a difficult thing to overcome, we must forgive people.
we have all been pardoned of the wrong things we have done, are doing and will do.
pardoned with bloodshed.
in the old days, you would have to offer a sacrifice for that kind of thing.
and a sacrifice required a lot of preparation, time, and all kinds of procedures and regulations.
the list was seemingly endless.
i couldn’t imagine!!!
i’m glad we don’t have to “go by the book” anymore.

but… we aren’t excused from the duty of sacrifice altogether.
we must dig deep within our hearts and find a way to forgive the ones that hurt us.
that in itself could very well be just as difficult if not moreso than the old way.
heh heh. yeah… now that i think about it… can’t i just offer up a goat or something?

nope.
we are called to die to ourselves.
to sacrifice.

we must forgive so that they can grow and truly live.
we must forgive so that we can grow and truly live.