Colossians 3:13 “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
It was unfair. You, or perhaps someone who means a lot to you, were treated unfairly. But what are you going to do about it? You can choose to hold on to the hurt, or you can forgive. If you choose to nurse that grievance, it will fester into unforgiveness, grow into resentment and bear fruits of bitterness. You may even become a person defined by bitterness.
Gordon Wilson held the hand of his daughter Marie as they lay trapped under a pile of rubble. It was 1987, and they had been standing watching a peaceful Remembrance Day service in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, when a terrorist bomb went off. Marie died. A few hours after the bombing, when interviewed by the BBC, Gordon Wilson made his choice: he forgave the terrorists and begged that no-one take revenge for Marie’s death. The loss of Marie shattered Gordon Wilson and his wife Joan, but his willingness to forgive not only released him but astounded the public and contributed in a small but significant way to achieving peace in Northern Ireland.
Faced with a disaster, any given person can either get bitter or better through it.
In Malaysia, monkeys were perpetually invading a farmer’s land and destroying his crops. The damage jeopardized his very livelihood so he needed to act fast. The ingenuous solution he devised was to put peanuts in hollowed-out coconuts. He then hid and waited. The monkeys came, scaled the walls, and smelt the peanuts. When they found them in the coconuts, they grabbed them, but now their clenched fists couldn’t pull them out – they couldn’t fit through the narrow apertures if they remained clenched. Neither could the monkeys now scale the walls again without releasing the peanuts, but they didn’t want to, so they were stuck. The farmer then reappeared and shot them one by one. Their freedom was so easily attainable. All they had to do was let go, but they chose to hold on.
Are you holding on to anything still? Let go!
Lord, I choose to forgive… today, to let go and move on. Amen!
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