Forgiveness

This can be a tough one. Churchgoers hear about it a lot and its a very good thing. But, it’s good for everyone, and society as a whole, even those who don’t follow an organized religion.

We’ve all wronged someone. When we recognize that, we feel bad. If we’re strong enough, we admit our mistake and apologize. We then expect, or at least hope that person will forgive us. If they don’t, we will probably still feel bad. We might even have a little anger that he or she didn’t forgive us. We might think, ‘well, I apologized. I did what I can.’

Have you reversed that? Has someone come to you to apologize, but you’ve refused? What happens then? They don’t feel any worse, because they already feel bad. You had a chance to make them feel better about themselves, but you didn’t offer it. You made a decision to squeeze just a little more guilt out of them. To what end? To punish them. We can debate whether you have that right (you don’t) some other time.

What you have done is punish yourself. You are feeling the anger and the resentment because you were wronged, and you’ve now twisted those inside feelings even tighter. You will now be paying for this long after everyone else has forgotten it even happened. Wouldn’t you rather let that go?

Forgive others. Forgive yourself. It’s good for you, and it’s good for them. In this age of blaming, let’s try forgiving for a change. You’ll be happier if you do.