Forgive and Release

Last night was session five of our Basic Training small group on the discipline of Forgiveness.  As always, these times together are a real encouragement.  Now five weeks into the series, everyone is relaxed and at ease in the group and this lends to a lot more authenticity, which is wonderful.

One of our discussion questions centered on the reasons why we don't forgive others.  Among the myriad of reasons, I think one of the main reasons we aren't more quick to forgive others is that we are power hungry.  

When we feel we have been offended by someone and decide that we are going to take up the offense (an idiom that is so appropriate becuase it is indicative of the active role the offended plays -- we actually make a decision to be offended most of the time), we then hold a kind of power over that person.  When we refuse to release them of the offense, we are saying to them, you owe me something.  

When we owe money to someone, they hold a power over us.  They can demand payment and even make our lives miserable until the debt is cleared.  

With unforgiveness this power is much less tangible — and a lot more corrosive.  We believe we are holding someone accountable because "they have to pay for what they have done" but in actuality we are only making ourselves miserable.

But because we like power, even if it is mostly intangible, we are reticent to release offenses.  How incredible that the most powerful Being in the whole universe, the One who actually has all the right to hold an offense, forgives totally and unequivocally.

May we learn to mirror His forgiveness.