Forgiveness

I haven't posted anything for a little while. I've had a lot on my mind and in my life...a lot to take in, wrap my head around, contemplate, rethink. A lot that I wasn't wanting or planning to spend time thinking about. Basically, I've realized that if you want to survive life, you need to let things go. You need to have a forgiving heart.

Profound, right?

Even as I write this, I have to force myself to not cling to the hurts of the past.
But the fact is, people will hurt you. Deeply.

How will you let it change you?
Will you become bitter? Hateful?
Will you become a gossip?
Is that hurt the ONLY thing you talk about?
Will you let it steal your joy?

That's how I let it change me.

I quickly became the type of person I can't stand. The type who links everything that happens ever back to my hurt. And man, that is exhausting and stressful!
But you know what? I learned something over the past couple of weeks.
I learned that it's so much better to not hold on to the hurt...or the bitterness...or the habits of gossiping.
I learned I was hurting myself by being so awful.
And I was reminded of how humbling, freeing, and redemptive it is to ask another human for forgiveness.

What a feeling! How beautiful to experience such grace!
I want to encourage you gently: do away with those ways of being swallowed by bitterness, hatred, gossip, etc. If you've wronged someone, even without them knowing it, confess it to them and ask for their forgiveness. You'll realize that you're the one who's set free!

The Digital Age: Captured
(ps, check out this beautiful song. Be captured by His love.)