Where is my forgiveness found?  Did I find it that moment when the child looked into my eyes, embarrassed, ashamed offering apology?  Was I born with it, a youngster capable of letting go of each trespass, easily suffering no lasting implication?  Maybe, it was the day she came back and apologized for straying, having learned on the road the importance and rarity of a man who will stand beside you?  Perhaps, it was the day my Father nearly knocked me out or tore my hide so fiercely because of his drunken rage that I knew some were just given to crazy?  All these taught me the meaning of its riches, my forgiveness was found the day that the Lord forgave me for the horrible man I had become because of these unfortunate experiences.  That was the same time I learned about true, unconditional love, that we all talk about but few understand.  He loved me completely at my worst possible moment, forgiving me where I stood with no requirement but my own willingness to admit my circumstance and ask for help.

How then should I approach the world, having seen such fine example?  Should I rage at their misgivings, holding them to account for every misstep, mistake or encroachment?  Shall I harbor resentment when I know they possess neither the understanding nor insight necessary to awareness?  Shall I disbar them from my organization, finding them unworthy of my approval?  Shall I hate them for standing there watching me in desperate straights only seeing what this world has conditioned them to believe?  At what point do I become responsible for my own actions, manicuring my own yard, tending my own accounts, guarding my own children from the dangers that ought be expected?  To what responsibility do I hold my own willingness to forgive those who have offended?  Can I forgive the Clinton’s or must I hold them in contempt, this somehow pronouncing some manner of judgment over their atrocities?  What does it mean for a man to forgive his enemies?  Is this an easy thing?  Perhaps, impossible.  But isn’t that the expectation to which I am accountable?

Forgiveness is the key to contentment.  The grudges I hold, hold me back.  The angers I compartmentalize turn into plots for revenge and fester.  The forgiveness I withhold bars the blessings of God from flowing through me.  I love you and in so doing must forgive what you’ve done.  That doesn’t mean that I must remain in good company with you if you are unrepentant and believe it acceptable to carelessly harm those around you, but you have been forgiven for that is the power of Christ.  The Holy Spirit gives us understanding beyond our mortal perspective, that we might see that a person who today does not see his misery, may by throwing that rock at my back, tomorrow surrender to Christ.  It is an impossible thing to men to forgive enemies, but a normal thing in the Kingdom of God.  They do not know.  I pray that they will know and that they too will be forgiven as I was forgiven on that faithful day of my awakening.  For now I pray that maybe they see God’s Face in the wake of my forgiveness.  That is the greatest thing that I will have ever done.  In Jesus’ Name.