Getting Away from Day

With social media and interconnected telecommunications providing immediate access to horrifying events all around the world, it takes real effort to separate ourselves from the violence that is constantly unfolding.  Ask a friend how to shield yourself from the shock of it all and you will get the instant response, “Just turn off the cellphone [/computer/TV/etc.] for periods of the day or week so that you can think and function!”  Their advice rings true, but is hard to put into practice.

It is hard to disconnect ourselves from the pain and difficulty of others because we either want to learn more about their tragedy in hopes of protecting ourselves from it, or we want to see if there is a way that we can help.  After all, as a nation and a church, we find amazing ways to respond to tragedy with hope through basic necessities.

But what about when the violence is happening inside us and we are the culprit?

Hurting a Mystery Person

One of the great challenges in life is to forgive, and especially to forgive ourselves. There are a myriad of ways we disappoint others and ourselves.

Life happens.  The more years we are given to live, the more opportunities we have to have mess up, to have challenges, or to witness tragedy. When an injustice or tragedy happens to us, our human condition is to want to not only to steep in anger, but to conceive of ways to exact some revenge and throw some of our pain at the offender (the very definition of “blame”).

Nelson Mandela said that resentment is like swallowing poison and waiting for your enemy to die. The science of resentment, and blame confirms his observation, as in times of steaming resentment, our body releases stress hormones that scar our arteries, lock up our brains from making decisions and increase our chance of stroke or heart attack. A grudge is really violence done to ourselves.

It Matters to God

What you do to your own body matters to God.  When you harbor bad thoughts about others —and especially disappointment with yourself—you are committing a violent act against someone God loves immensely:  you.

But when you make the decision to forgive, you discover that you are bigger than your emotions and free to be who you were created to be.  Freed from the chains that tie you to the pain of the past, you are free to have life, and have it abundantly.

Meet God at the starting point of forgiveness at the place God treasures: right inside your heart.