Religion - Forgiveness

On Wednesday our youth group watched a video about forgiveness. Some of the video was centered on typical sermon topics such as "God forgives us so we need to forgive others". Most of the video, however, was very intense. It discussed the wounds that we carry, the pain that won't go away. We all have them to different degrees. If a person lives very long, he or she will almost certainly be wronged in a way that is almost impossible to forget, in a way in which the pain seems to never really go away. The pain may be gone for a while, but something will remind us of the situation or person and the pain returns. The video reminded us that forgiveness and forgetting are not the same. Some things we cannot forget nor should we. Forgiveness can free us from the pain and free the other party from the guilt. Yet, the video was right when it said that it's a nice idea but hard to practice. I do think that time helps to heal wounds, it just take much longer for some than others. True forgiveness is being able to wish that person well. I think that often the hardest circumstances for me to forgive are when somebody hurts a loved one of mine or I hurt somebody I love. Forgiving myself can very difficult. Yet, God does forgive us. That is comforting. We may need to work on forgiveness just like many other things in our quest to model our lives after God, but it is something worth trying. Forgiveness feels much better than anger, resentment, or guilt.

The other aspect of the video that was interesting was the discussion about toxic people. We are called to forgive, but if a person keeps hurting us over and over, we need to remove ourselves from that situation and away from that person. Jesus says that if a person hits you on the cheek, present the other one to him. What if he hits that one too? Second and third chances are deserved, but if a person cannot break the habit of hurting you, ideally you forgive the person and wish him or her well, but you also need to take yourself away from that person. We are called to sacrifice ourselves for the good of others, for the good of a lost world. However, I do not believe we are called to be punching bags, physically, emotionally, or spiritually, for others. There comes a point that we should do as Jesus instructed his disciples and shake the dirt from our shoes and leave that person.