Forgiveness, Part Three

Continuing on from yesterday's thoughts, I've come to realize that most offenses happen because I'm too wrapped up in myself and my problems.  That does not give me a reason to offend.  It only helps me identify an area that I can improve.  I'm pretty sure that I will continue to do and say things that will be taken as offenses but I refuse to live in bondage to guilt or bitterness.  I do not have the energy or the time to carry around a scorecard of all that someone else has done to me.  I don't want to remember all the cruddy things I've done to others, intentionally or not.

Having said that, I want to make it clear that some things still have consequences.  Most often those consequences follow us for many years or even the rest of our lives.  The choices I made as a young woman in the Navy have changed the rest of my life.  I cannot go back and undo those actions.  This is why I don't understand "forgive and forget".  A victim of sexual abuse may be able to forgive but the chances are that forgetting will be impossible.  A family that lost a son or daughter to a drunk driver may be able to forgive but forgetting is not possible.

When God tells us that He forgives our sin and removes it as far as the east is from the west, He no longer holds us responsible for that sin.  If our sin is such that it resulted in a pregnancy, disease, or possible injury - the consequences of that will be a constant reminder.  It becomes impossible to forget.  The great news is that we aren't in bondage to it any more.  Oh, what joy!  This would also apply to sin committed by another that affects us.  Christ alone is the one that can give us freedom from the slavery of sin - ours and others.

I will forever be affected by the crime that my former spouse committed.  My children will forever be affected by it.  However, we don't have to be controlled by it.  God in his great mercy protected us through multiple years of single parenthood.  God in his excellent mercy provided a new spouse - a love beyond my wildest dreams.  And I hold this new relationship and love in a special place.  I will fight to protect it.  But, that's a story for another day.

(Father God, I am so blessed by the forgiveness that you have.  Thank you for sending your only begotten Son that I might know the depth of that forgiveness.  Thank you for His sacrifice on calvary so that I might know the height of that forgiveness.  Thank you for raising him to life again so that I might know the width of that forgiveness.  Praise your Holy Name for the forgiveness which was, which is, and which is to come.  Hallelujah!  In Jesus' precious name I pray, Amen.)