Forgive: it’s a tough act to do. We struggle with it. And the longer we suppress, it metamorphoses into something that further erodes our composure and then spirals into bitterness. There are people in our life that classify into several types: the toxic ones who really not only irritate us but vex our spirit, those who take advantage of us, and those who really hurt us physically, emotionally or mentally. This is because people are somewhat inherently self-centered.
Believers like my friend Amanda struggles with it. But so we all do. I am conflicted with it from time to time. She said this is part of her growing. True. We are all work in progress in our walk with the Lord. Paul wrote that the Lord is the author and finisher of our faith. When He was asked by Peter how many times one may forgive, the Lord replied to forgive not seven times but seventy-seven times. That’s a lot. It meant to rein in our impatience and mold our character. It meant to nurture an inner peace within us. It meant to nourish our souls.
The practical essence of forgiving is that it changes us spiritually. If we forgive, two things happen. The person we forgive eases out from the burden of wrongdoing or guilt. If it does not change the person, God changes us instead. He cast out the burden in us. The heavy baggage is removed from us. If we dispense forgiveness its lofty result is that we have altered the course of our path from bitterness and in so doing we move on.
Among us mortals, forgiveness is often a two-way street. There is one who hurt us and because of guilt should ask for forgiveness and the other who was hurt ought to forgive. I recall an obscure man who most recently lived in Southern California had similar conviction in his heart. After 30 years of nourishing his guilt, Jack Wendell Pursel, now 68, came forward to the Police Precinct in Waterloo, Iowa surrendered himself and confessed the gruesome crime he did when he robbed and murdered two senior citizens in the town of Cedar River, Iowa where he lived before. The two victims were found tied, gagged up and were shot to death. When interviewed by the press folks, the Police Sheriff said, when asked why the man confessed three decades later, “He found Christ and he felt it was the right thing to do.” I can only imagine what was going on in his mind in that 30 years span of time.
Let us recall how the Lord bestowed forgiveness. We are called to live like Him. One of the two felons who was crucified along with our Lord on that bleak mountain 2,000 years ago, asked the Lord’s forgiveness. In His usual compassionate gesture Jesus replied: “Today you will be with me in paradise”. The creator of the Universe, even in His passing human-nature and agonizing moments, had time for one felon. And this person, bringing all his guilt and lawlessness at that one dead-end juncture of his life had remorseful moment of hunger for truth and salvation that only God can satisfy.