A Little Chat with God #9 

(forgiveness)

Good Morning God:

As I glance out from my window, my yard appears to be so much brighter today and the sun is really beaming through the trees, playing peek-a-boo with the limbs.  The fact that we just recently had our three 45-ft oak trees trimmed and a 30-ft cedar tree removed just might have a lot to do with that as well.  But Your sunshine brightens any day as its radiance covers the earth.   Thank You for the wonderful blessing of sunshine and warmth.

Today I have a big, big, big word . . . forgiveness.  The implication of this word in our language is tremendous and it takes so much for a person to have the true characteristic of forgiveness.  This word is involved is so many ways with everyone in one form of the other, although most of us probably do not even give this much thought.  In fact, there are so many things about this word, I hardly know where to start.

First, let me state the definition of this word . . . According to Wikipedia, forgiveness is typically defined as the process of concluding resentment, indignation or anger as a result of a perceived offense, difference or mistake, or ceasing to demand punishment or restitution. The Oxford English Dictionary defines forgiveness as 'to grant free pardon and to give up all claim on account of an offense or debt'. The concept and benefits of forgiveness have been explored in religious thought, the social sciences and medicine. Forgiveness may be considered simply in terms of the person who forgives including forgiving themselves, in terms of the person forgiven or in terms of the relationship between the forgiver and the person forgiven. In some contexts, forgiveness may be granted without any expectation of restorative justice, and without any response on the part of the offender (for example, one may forgive a person who is incommunicado or dead). In practical terms, it may be necessary for the offender to offer some form of acknowledgment, apology or restitution, or even just ask for forgiveness, in order for the wronged person to believe himself able to forgive.  Most world religions include teachings on the nature of forgiveness, and many of these teachings provide an underlying basis for many varying modern day traditions and practices of forgiveness. Some religious doctrines or philosophies place greater emphasis on the need for humans to find some sort of divine forgiveness for their own shortcomings, others place greater emphasis on the need for humans to practice forgiveness of one another, yet others make little or no distinction between human and divine forgiveness.

With such a wide ranging and lengthy definition, You can see why I might not know exactly where I want to begin.  I find this to be a very complicated word in its in-depth meaning, and I think this word defines so adeptly one of the most important characteristics of us as human beings, and one that we will require to have in abundance if we expect to gain entrance into heaven and live forever in your midst. 

This word has a very broad spectrum in general but within its ultimate, deepest and most defining definition, “forgiveness” can be a very soul-searching, sincere, in-depth and sometimes painful utterance to be made by the one actually doing the forgiving.  For instance, I daresay that not a day goes by when we do not utter to someone the words “I’m sorry”.  This is forgiveness at the low end of the spectrum in my simplistic thinking.  Let me further clarify here.  When a person says this to another person, it does not mean to say that the one who says it is not sincere . . . not at all; this is what one usually says when a slight offence or occurrence has come about unintentionally and this is generally the “off the cuff” response.  No one is offended by this but it is a low level of true forgiveness.  This is acceptable in society and occurs regularly without anyone giving it further thought as it is said for the purpose intended and life goes on.

When someone offends you to a more serious degree, sometimes saying “I’m sorry” is just not enough.  If someone has damaged your creditability, your integrity, your character and your reputation, more than “I’m sorry” has to be said to be an acceptable apology or forgiveness to the person or persons offended.  In this situation, his or her livelihood could have been ruined, a complete family could be affected and have to move elsewhere . . . the damage is bad and words sometimes are just not enough.  Restitution is sometimes in order privately and publicly.  This type of scenario I would place in the middle of the spectrum of forgiveness.

There are many times that a life is taken or serious injury occurs for whatever the reason.  Our society is rampant with the “do what is fun for me” mentality and this can be very bad just in general terms of thinking.  There are young boys and girls out in the streets with guns and other violent means of injuring innocent people, who are in it for either fun or personal gain.  There are people who drive on our highways with road rage mentality that cause accidents resulting in serious injury and sometimes death to the innocent.  Some drivers are just careless or in too much of a hurry and have the same resulting situation, injury and/or death, or both.  There are so many people who are innocently and unnecessarily injured or who die as the result of irresponsible actions of others. Injuries of all forms come about not only from human irresponsibility, but also from verbal, mental and physical forms of abuse done to others.  But regardless of the reason for the hurt, forgiveness should be given to the harmed regardless of the form of harm inflicted.

This is the 20^th Century people say . . . well, so what!  Forgiveness was necessary in the ancient days and it is still necessary in modern days as well.  Forgiveness will never be an extinct characteristic of man; it will never not be needed in our world.  Forgiveness is a virtue that EVERYONE will need to have fine-tuned to an extreme level on earth in order to be acceptable in God’s eyes for gaining heaven.

God, you are the ultimate forgiver . . . you gave your son Jesus to die a horrendous death on the cross for all mankind, past-present-future . . . the drunkards and druggies in the dredges as well as the powerful and wealthy living in mansions.  You are not a respecter of persons in that regard; you gave all mankind a way to heaven through forgiveness.

If You can forgive us, the God of All, why can’t we manage to put aside the hurt and pain done to us and forgive those who have wronged us, or in some cases those we think have wronged us. We need to put ourselves on a higher plane of humanity here.  While it is not easy by any stretch of the imagination . . . in fact, in some cases it is very, very, very difficult to overcome the anger, resentment, pain and perhaps loss or injury to a loved one.  In such tragedies, this is something that has to be fervently prayed about over and over again.  We need to pray for help in overcoming and we need to pray long and hard about our resentment in such situations; we need to pray that God will allow us to get past this emotional wall which is holding us within its grasp. There are times when blame is put on others when in fact, it should be a shared blame.

And, from what I have heard others say, true and honest forgiveness releases a tremendous burden or weight from the forgiver.  When someone forgives another of any form of tragedy, neither can bring this up again and toss it in either person’s face as true forgiveness means it is done and over with.  This is another reason that the one doing the forgiving needs to be very sure of his or her emotions and that when he or she says “I forgive you”, it comes from the core of their very soul.   Even You, oh Almighty God, forgive and forget our sins once we have asked forgiveness, and we are so thankful that You do! 

We all have stones that tumble into our pathway intermittently in life, some bigger than others, and some have more than others; but we all have to learn to walk over or around them and go onward with our life.  Life on this earth is way too short for it to be filled with hate, anger and resentment.  I think we all need to check our forgiveness barometers and get on with life.

Thank you God for listening to me again . . . I probably rambled here more than was necessary, but that is a human trait I seem to have an abundanace of, so until next time . . .

Written by Ruth Miller

© July 28, 2011