A Thought: Forgiveness

It can be so hard to forgive especially when you get burned bad. I, being human have been on both sides of the burn. Getting burned is bad but when I realize that I have burned someone because of my ego and human frailty then I feel very ashamed. Receiving forgiveness for something I have done wrong is immense. Probably better than any Christmas present I have ever gotten.

So when I get up in the shoes of the one that was burned I try and flip the situation. Shortly into the relationship with the wonderful woman that became my wife, Tannie Smith she approached me with an odd criticism. She told me that it was hard because whenever we got into an argument and she felt the need to apologize I would forgive her on the spot and act like nothing ever happened.

I told her that yeah, you hurt me but you apologized and I didn't think that it was Christian to hold that over her. That it didn't seem right to make her keep paying some kind of guilt or penance for the mistake she had made. I make mistakes everyday and I know I feel like crap when I do. I wouldn't want the guilt hanging over me so I don't hold it over her.

Random strangers cut you off in traffic, give you dirty looks, or say things in earshot that can hurt you. I try and treat them in the same way. I say the Lord's prayer quite a few times through out the day and the line that always gets me is when I say the line, "Forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who sin against us", I pause on that line nearly every time I say it and reflect if that is what I actually do.

Love spins the world and makes it a better place. Part of love is forgiving when you are hurt by others wether you know them or not, so I try very hard to forgive each day and man up and ask forgiveness for the stupid things that I do to myself, God and others. I think that if there was a little more forgiveness in the world then there would be a little more love and that would make so much run so much more smooth.

So thats part of the reason why I am a Catholic and a Christian, because if I ask for forgiveness God stops on a dime and says okay and then acts as if it never even happened. His love for he does not stop and so I try to treat others likewise.


Mark 2: 1 - 12
1 And when he returned to Caper'na-um after some days, it was reported that he was at home.
2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room for them, not even about the door; and he was preaching the word to them.
3 And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
4 And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and when they had made an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic lay.
5 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "My son, your sins are forgiven."
6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,
7 "Why does this man speak thus? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
8 And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, "Why do you question thus in your hearts?
9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, `Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, `Rise, take up your pallet and walk'?
10 But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins" -- he said to the paralytic --
11 "I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home."
12 And he rose, and immediately took up the pallet and went out before them all; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this!"