Click here to go to the Scripture: 2 Corinthians 2:1-11

Let’s read this Scripture again: 6 What the majority of you agreed to as punishment is punishment enough. 7Now is the time to forgive this man and help him back on his feet. If all you do is pour on the guilt, you could very well drown him in it. 8My counsel now is to pour on the love.

What I think about this: That it’s easier said than done. Maybe we can forgive, but forget? Not so quickly. Look, it hurts when other people stomp on you with their big boots and the marks remain for a long time. The marks left by those you love the most remain especially long. But Paul says: Build a bridge of forgiveness and get over it. It’s really not that easy.

How many times have you heard about friends going into business together and then one of them does something that leaves the other totally speechless and sometimes with no money as well. Spouses who simply decide to play outside the boundaries of their marriage. It hurts. It affects your deepest being. You feel humiliated, raw and hurt and now you have to forgive and forget and care for that person? O no!

It’s not easy. To be honest, it looks impossible.

Sakkie (not his real name) struggled with this problem:

A friend and I were involved in a motorbike accident. One with an enormous disc plow, a tractor and a car. My friend died when we drove into the upright hydraulic arm of the disc plow. The whiplash broke everything on my left-hand side from top to bottom. I was in a coma for seven days, transferred from one hospital to another so that my left arm and leg could be amputated. By the grace of God the doctor on duty first gave it another try and today I fortunately still have all my limbs.

The court case dragged on for seven years and in the supreme court in Pretoria I had to hear that I wanted to enrich myself at the cost of someone else’s death. Bitter and cutting words, a dagger in my back.

The fact that I had been physically disfigured made no difference. Sitting outside the court struggling with the Lord about the injustice of everything, how raw it was with my friend gone to heaven, the Lord spoke to me and told me the following. I could hear His voice: “Forgive those who hurt you so that you can be free, otherwise you will become their slave and they won’t know it!”

The Lord freed me and healed me emotionally when I walked to the man who had caused the accident and forgave him! No strings attached ­– just simple forgiveness!

Forgiveness is not an option, but a must-do!

When you forgive and live in a way that others do not continuously have to pick up their guilt and carry it with them again and again, you change. You become lighter. Yes, it’s not easy, but God uses it to bring you closer to Him. Then you have a better understanding of God’s forgiveness and you can live in a way that you can even care for the person who did everything to you.

As I listen to Sakkie’s story I know there is hope. Hope for forgiveness.

Reflection

Do you have someone to forgive?

Are you prepared to do it?

What does God expect of you?

Prayer

Father, why is forgiveness always so difficult? Why can’t we simply broadcast it like You did. It must be because we don’t have Your love for others in our hearts. Please help us, Lord, to cross this barrier as well. Please help us to forgive and to forget and to get peace. Please help us to leave the baggage of what others had done to us at Your cross. Amen