The F Word

I’m really not sure if I have been doing this thing right or not. The cliche’ term forgive and forget does nothing but stamp a reminder in the back of one’s mind. Unfortunately it doesn’t stick because the definition is vague number one. Secondly, it’s dependent on the perspective one views it from. From a biblical standpoint, we should forgive and forget. This means we are to think, seek, and perform good to the forgiven individual, without any plans of getting even, AND without any forgiveness being requested in the first place. In addition, we are to let them off the hook for whatever bad deeds they committed against us. From a worldly standpoint, we know that people can be incredibly cruel, unaccountable, selfish, unfaithful, and dishonest; so even though similar characters existed in biblical times, people nowadays generally regard forgiveness as an act of simply not harboring bad feelings towards a person. This part can be challenging, but with some good thought, we can handle it, right? We are all flawed by nature, and we don’t want to hinder our maturity by walking around with a huge chip on our shoulder over things that we ourselves do too. The forget part kind of slips through the cracks though. Hard to imagine forgetting brutal and blatant acts of violence and dishonesty against us or our loved ones, and the association between them and the individuals who commit them. Our concept of forgetting is sometimes unclear, because there is an unsettled war going on between it and our own common sense. Does that mean we have more leeway on forgiving than God does for us? I mean, we may encounter an individual who does us wrong for a day, week, month, or year; but we commit sins for a lifetime, and are forgiven ALL the way. I really don’t think there is one universal definition to what forgiveness truly is. I really believe that forgiveness is a more intricate process than what it is made to be. So I won’t warn you by saying “Don’t say that you forgive someone unless you mean it.” Instead “Don’t say that you forgive someone unless you think really hard about it.” Food for thought. Dinner is served...