It sucks, doesn’t it?

When you get hurt it is almost nothing but a big pile of suck.

Sorry for my lack of flowery language…but that’s all it is.

It feels as though nothing existed before this hurt and nothing will exist after.

That’s how deep it is.

What next?

What’s the point?

How do you get out?

And then you remember something.

Forgiveness.

What is forgiveness anyway?

Why is it so important for healing?

Why can’t you just skip that part?

That’s the difficult part. We all know it is easier to stay the victim and oh so tempting. Because when you are in a big pile of suck, it slowly starts to become comfortable…

Obviously, this is not good.

This hurt that rests in your soul, it’s heavy isn’t it?

It holds you down almost like…the weight you often feel from your sin.

What if I told you, it was a sin not to forgive?

Here’s the thing: we hurt God everyday. We reject him through our sin.

But before we even sinned he forgave us.

And with this forgiveness comes the ability to forgive others.

When you are hurt, this seems impossible. But this is the chasm that the Cross has spanned. We can now forgive the unthinkable because we have been forgiven of the same.

I am not implying that the hurt will dissipate or that the pain will be nulled. It will not. But forgiveness is the path to a renewed joy that just doesn’t make sense to a hurting world.

When people see you and then hear of what you have been through, they will not believe their eyes.

This is the Gospel. What better way to show it?