On Forgiveness

“Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another whenever any of you has a complaint against someone else. You must forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you.” – Colossians 3:13

90% of the world’s problem is due to lack of forgiveness! When people choose not to forgive, we hurt, embitter, and inflict further pain on ourselves. We end up exiling ourselves – away from the presence of God and from the people we love. We can only be hurt by people we love. Yet, we need to believe that no one wakes up in the morning and then chooses to cause pain to other people especially to the people we love.

We hurt because we have judged the people who caused us pain as wrong and put ourselves always in the right place. Our love sometimes is replaced by hate because of something we have not received. Most of the time, we are hurt because we think we deserve better than what they have given us – our sense of entitlement gets in the way. Pride, after all, remains at the root of our lack of forgiveness.

Lord, teach me to forgive and forgive me of my offenses. Let me let go and in humility demand not anything from people. Lord, let me grow in the virtue of humility that I may become a person who cannot be offended because I have become a person who cares not for what others do unto me because I have become so rooted in my identity.