Suffering and Forgiveness

 I have two quotes on my wall that say:

 

“We are loyal to our suffering.”

 

“Forgiveness is giving up hope for a better past.”

 

I’m not 100% sure, but I think they are words from Joe the Counselor. Very profound. Yet very difficult to swallow.

 

As I’ve wrestled with these statements, I’ve come to think of them like this:

 

Sometimes we become so used to our suffering that we hold on to it because we don’t know what to do without it. That grudge? That wronged sense of self? That unhealthy view of self? That unhealthy habit? We may know that something is eating up our time, energy, and well-being but not know how to live without it. And thus, we are loyal to our suffering.

 

And forgiveness. Well. Forgiveness is not easy. Letting go of the emotional pull of a situation is a process that sometimes takes a lifetime. Forgiveness is a journey. It is a process. It is two steps forward and one step backward. Forgiveness is coming to yourself and setting your face forward. Forgiveness is the moment we give up hope for a better past.

 

What about you? What do these statements mean to you?

 

Dear God: Help our loyalty to be to you, to Love, to the freedom found in love, to the grace found in the suffering that you endured in your life and death on the cross. And help us, God, to take steps to forgive—to not act in retribution, but to renounce and rebuke evil, to brush the dust from our sandals, and to set our face forward. Help us to let go of what could have been and to live forward into what can be. With you, oh Spirit God, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are possible. Thank you. And thank you for the hope of a better future. Amen.