Forgiveness is often misunderstood. When one forgives they are not saying: "what you did is 'okay'". Nor are they "forgetting" what took place (or the pain that has come along with a hurtful action).Forgiveness is essential because it frees us from the need (burden) to collect on something that another cannot possibly re-pay: innocence, trust, hope.
Even more, it is in our capacity and availability to forgiveness that we find the forgiving God. In his book, Surprised By Hope, NT Wright writes: "Not to forgive is to shut down a faculty in the innermost person, which happens to be the same faculty that can receive God's forgiveness. It also happens to be the same faculty that can experience real joy and real grief. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ...If you lock up the piano because you don't want to play to somebody else, how can God play to you?"
That is why we pray, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."
Maybe today you need to forgive someone who hurt you; a family member that has long since past, an "enemy" of yours, or even more - yourself. In the space of your forgiveness of another may you experience the peace, hope, and love of a forgiving God.
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