Friday, February 6, 2015

To forgive

Possibly the thing that people struggle with the most is forgiveness.  How can I forgive the person who did that to me?

We hear teaching after teaching about it, and we try to force ourselves to forgive, but it is so difficult to do.  Often, time rolls by and the wound scars over, but it is still there.

In order to really forgive someone, it helps to understand why they did what  they did to you.  Take a moment and think of someone who hurt you.  What happened?  Why?  I will share with you some of the reasons why people have hurt me over the years.

They were friends with the previous pastor and I am not him.
They thought they were defending the Christian faith.
They did not understand my approach to faith.
They did not want to give money to a project.
They were afraid. 
I challenged them.
I made them nervous.
I disappointed them.

There are hundreds of reasons why people hurt us.  When you can look and see the reason behind their action, it makes it a little more understandable.  They did not mean to hurt me, they were almost always hurting inside themselves.

Seeing something from the other person’s perspective always helps me work on forgiving.


It’s a beautiful day in God’s world, be sure to see the good.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's a song that was written before you were born Jeff (1950) It's title is "Three Little Words"

The three little words that would go so very far in this world, and cause people from hurting others freely, are these. "Do unto others." Now where have I read those words?

Anonymous said...

Jeff, judging from the attendance at all four of our Sanctuary services, I'd say there are several hundred folks out there who wouldn't think of hurting Jeff.

And for the few who choose unkind words to hurt you, because they think you _______________(whatever)there's a good chance they make it a habit to hurt people in addition to you.

Keep being Jeff. Keep teaching us to forgive. You teach us so well.