It's one thing we have all done. It's something we all should do more often. It releases peace, and comfort in the soul. Although it does so much good, we are not easy to give it away. Don't get me wrong it's easy to do, but only once you've held on to anger for so long. This is my story about Forgiveness.
In my life, I have learned to forgive the unforgivable. There have been times where my friends have asked me "How could you forgive them for that, they don't deserve it," but my response is always, "I need to forgive, I may not forget, but I need to forgive. It's what I need to do for my soul, to be able to close wounds."
As a Christian, one could think forgiveness could just come up like a snap, "Boom!" and then forgiveness. No, that's not what happened for me, and that's not what happens for most people. Before forgiveness, there comes many other emotions such as hate, anger, sadness, worry, but the strongest emotion felt is anger. I asked "Why?!", "How could you?!", any question or comment you can think of, I probably did. Now this situation wasn't just "Oh they told a lie about me!" or "They did this!" It was deeper than that, it was something that could be unforgivable. People were telling me "It's okay to hate, it's okay if you don't forgive, I could never forgive them if that happened to me!" The thing was is I had the "right" to hate, to be angry, to be sad, to want revenge, to not forgive. Everyone was telling me, I had that right, but the longer I held on, the harder it was for me. Emotionally I couldn't take it, I was drained, it had taken a serious emotional toll on me.
I allowed my anger, and my want for revenge to consume me, but in the midst of all of this, I got into the car and we turned on the radio. The song was called Forgiveness by Matthew West, it was a right moment type thing, hearing this song. All I could do was listen to the lyrics, and I only realized that I was holding on to something that wasn't doing me any good. I knew for a moment I had a right to be angry, I did. But then to hold onto it for so long, now then I was becoming a prisoner in my own cell. I had hate and anger towards someone who had not only hurt me, but hurt my family. What they did to many is seen as unforgivable, but in my heart I knew I was going to forgive, no matter how hard it was going to be, no matter how long I held onto it, no matter what the person had did, even though it was wrong.
People would say "Let them burn in hell for it," but to me those words didn't fit right. It wasn't right, because as a Christian, I believe hell is an actual place where people are tormented for all eternity. And I'd never wish the worst person in the world hell, no matter what they had done.
Through this event, I learned to forgive the unforgivable. I was set free the moment I decided to forgive. It was as if a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders, I had peace, peace that felt so good. There is a time for healing, there is a time to be angry, but I learned to "forgive and forget." I remembered the fact that we are all human, we all make mistakes, some are worse than others, but it's the fact that we still make mistakes. It's okay to forgive the unforgivable.
Here is the story and song "Forgiveness" by Matthew West.
