Day 5 - Forgiveness

SUPSUPSUP.

ok. it's 6.45 am on a sunday morning and I'm getting ready to go to church soon. But noticed no reflection done, so thought I'll drop a quick one in.

See, Mahatma Gandhi is someone I respect a lot. Love that guy. I mean, who doesn't?! Everywhere he goes, he teaches about peace. But then, not only does he talk the walk, he walks the talk!

One of the hardest thing to do in life is to forgive. Sometimes it's just so hard to forgive when someone has crossed your path and hurt you badly. It's like you just can't bear to love that person anymore. But one thing i realised over the years is that in the end, you are the one who might be suffering more if you don't forgive. Sometimes you hold it in for so long that it just makes you more and more irritable, while the other person unknowingly carries on with life as if he did nothing. But the bible says not to let the sun go down while we are still angry. In other words, we need to forgive at the end of each day. As the sun sets, so too must our anger and bitterness. And as the sun rises each morning, we need to rise with clear hearts and minds.

Like its said in the devotion, bitterness and anger are like trash in your mind. The longer and the more you store it up, the smellier its going to get. And its going to start clouding your mind. So much so that praying and seeking the Lord is going to be THAT much harder.

In the end, when we ask ourselves why should we forgive that other person, we need to realise that its because God forgave us of our sins, thats why we need to forgive others.

I remember reading stories from a book called "Jesus Freak" by DC Talk about how this person got imprisoned for many years and tortured for no reason in Nazi camps. She got beaten up and watch as their loved ones get beaten up and killed. One day years after world war two was over, she was called into a hospital by a doctor to visit a stranger. as she walked into the room, she saw a person whom looked frail and weak and on the brink of death. But as she stared closer, she realised he looked so familiar. Then it hit her. He was one of the nazi officers who had beaten her up as well as beaten her loved ones up. She immediately felt angry and wanted to storm out the door. But before she could, the nazi officer slowly spoke in halting words, saying he was sorry for what he has done. He has found Christ and before he died, he wanted to seek forgiveness from her. She stood there for minutes, not knowing what to do. Imagine how hard it would have been for her right there and then to forgive that person. Every bone in her body would be screaming at her not to because it just didn't seem right. You know what she did? She forgave. Because thats what God had taught her to do. She knew she didn't have the strength herself to forgive that person, but by the grace of God, the Lord had provided her the strength to say those 3 words, "I forgive you."

Right now, just imagine that someone you loved so dearly was killed by a drunk driver. What would you do? To be honest, when i thought about that myself, i think i'd struggle very hard to forgive. It may take some time, but I hope that I can find the strength to do so.

So to close, remember that each new day brings a new choice, to be Bitter or Better. Forgiveness not only helps the other person, but it will help you tremendously as well.

Peace!

Hernshung