The Freedom of Forgiveness

To say that offering forgiveness is a challenge is an understatement. Forgiveness is tough! Forgiveness is often messy. Forgiveness doesn't feel good to most of us. And when it comes to the biggest, deepest hurts in life, forgiveness can seem impossible.

Some hurts are the everyday, garden-variety irritations we endure for having to live in the company of other human beings who lose their tempers, get up on the wrong side of the bed, say nasty things, are ungrateful, selfish, and irritable.

Some hurts are of a magnitude that far transcend these -- degradation, exploitation, abandonment, rejection, humiliation, racism, bullying, physical, church hurt, sexual, or emotional abuse. But with God's grace, even in those most difficult cases, forgiveness is possible.