Forgiveness or Freedom from Anger
I am in a church huddle. A huddle is a tad smaller than a small group. Besides my wife and I, our huddle is comprised of five other couples. A few days ago, this question was asked to our huddle: What do you need to do in order to be a better disciple of Christ? I cannot recall precisely, but I think that I was the last person to answer the question. I was last to answer because I was somewhat embarrassed of my response. I said that I need to FORGIVE better. Considering that forgiveness is the fundamental principle of Jesus Christ, one would think that I had conquered it by now. One of my huddle members, who is also a really good friend, suggested that I write a blog post about forgiveness. So, here it goes.
I get angry quickly. Generally, the things I get angry over are things that happened in the past. They are things that I should have “put away”, so to speak. I found that I am good at deflecting problems, and I forgive on the surface. It is kind of like walking through the woods. I deflect the branches from the trees as I walk, but they do not go away. They simply spring back into place. Then I have to deflect the branches again when I return.
In a nutshell, I am basically “deflecting” my problems and not “defeating” them. I am not really forgiving. I just put it out of head until a later date. Therefore, I get angry quickly over past wrongs. Some people “keep score”. They have an argument. They come to a resolution, but the next time they have an argument, they bring up wrongs from the first argument. These people probably have forgiveness issues as well.
So, where do people look for help with forgiveness issues? The best example comes from none other than the man, himself, J.C. After Jesus had been beaten and nailed to a stick, people were making fun of him. Not only the Roman soldiers, but even one of the thieves who was crucified with Jesus, was making fun of him. Jesus’ reply: FORGIVE them father, for they know not what they do. That, my friends, is hardcore forgiveness. Though I will strive for that standard, I will never achieve it. Nevertheless, there is help for people like me who are a little less perfect and struggle with forgiveness. It is called practice. It takes a lot of…..practice.
PS. There is also a great course called “Freedom in Christ”. I think step three is about forgiveness. I included a link. Many churches have included the course in their curriculum.
http://www.ficm.org.uk/the_fic_course
PSS. The picture is by Mike Joos. I saw seven in his set called, “Forgiveness”. They are hilarious. Check them out.