"Who are you?" someone asked. Or maybe they said, "You need to find out who you are." I'm not really sure…
Can you forgive everyone in your life that has ever hurt you? It's a hard question, if one really takes time to ponder it. For, the question that immediately follows is, "Why should I forgive them?" …To avoid making this blog feel like it's so deep it has no bottom, I'll tell you straight out because God says to. But that doesn't make it any easier.
Sometimes I feel like I'm a mile below the surface of the sea. Water encompasses me, holds me fast. Light comes streaming down suddenly, cutting through the royal blue like nothing else in the world. I hear a woman singing, "The deepest wound can never define you." …Can they hear me?
I would argue that the deepest wound can define you, but I fear I would be arguing with the trees instead of the forest. Those words mean the deepest wound is never deep enough to wholly define you. If you let it, you are nothing but a shallow puddle of rain water; a shadow cast by something finite - once it fades away, what will you be? "WHO are YOU?"
Someone stuck a pickaxe into my heart to find out what was there. I'm being pulled up from my watery grave where the angels sing; the rain is melting away, leaving fog and a whirl of confusing emotion. She takes another swing with love, and care. I let it go. I forgive them because the swing tells me I'm wrong.
I forgave them! Suddenly it all disappears in a blur, and I'm holding my sweetheart in my arms and laughing. "You believed that?" she asks, disbelievingly.
"It doesn't mater now," I tell her, running my hands through her golden hair.
Drinking in her mesmerizing blue eyes, I lean in and kiss her softly on the cheek.
Matthew 6:14 "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you"
I'm only crying because of the onions I was cutting earlier. Really.
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, way to go Gabe. Why aren't you a preacher again? And why are you so good at making your little sister cry? Two more good questions to write about if you have the time.
If we had actually had that conversation it would have been really romantic. We should have that conversation sometime ^_____^
ReplyDeleteI remember the Bible class in High School where Coach said that God wants us to love and forgive our enemies. He stopped when I said "But... that's really... hard." "Yeah, it's probably the hardest thing He asks us to do, but He still tells us to do it."
ReplyDeleteI love this blog entry, but I'm not sure if I understand it all.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you allude to the fact that we often allow others to define us. In reality, we belong to God. He made us, and only He can define us.
I'm always surprised at how freeing forgiveness really is. I praise God that I learned it!