Time heals all wounds.
I don’t know who said it first, and I don’t believe it’s true. We can bury a wound and pretend it doesn’t exist, but we can’t escape our hurt forever. If we suppress our hurts and cover them up, we will being carrying the weight of the wounds around with us. If we don’t address that they exist, we won’t tend to them. If we don’t tend to them, we will never heal, and we will never be able to forgive.
One of my biggest fears in life is turning into my offenders. Because I have been a victim in some way, I did everything in my power to not repeat the actions of those who have hurt me. I didn’t want to hurt people the way I had been hurt. I gave attention to the negative; who not to be instead of who I could be in Christ.
I have been pushed down along life’s way and I would climb back up, but I would get hurt again and again. Stifled emotions towards the people who pushed me down proved I was unforgiving. It kept me from loving them and offering them the same amount of grace and love I showed towards those who had never hurt me.
It wasn’t until I heard a message where I swear God was talking right to me that all of this clicked.
“You are created in Christ’s image. YOU are a mirror image of Him. Did you know that?”
God’s word says, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis? ?1?:?27? NIV)
Just as you and I are created in God’s image, so is every man and woman around us, including those who have injured us. And just as you and I have the opportunity to allow for God to conform our hearts, so do our offenders. And as Christ loves you and I, He loves them just as much. Therefore, if I’m made in the image of Christ, He has given me the ability to love and forgive, just as He loves and forgives me.
After this realization, I made the choice to forgive. I released my offenders from the hurt they had shown me, and because of that, I am no longer being dragged around by them; I wasn’t caught in the snares of unforgivingness any longer. On top of that, because I am made in the image of Christ, He can lead me to become more like Him instead of a person I don’t want to be.
I am not longer able to be hurt like I was in the past. Sure, the same attacks can come up again and again, but because I chose forgiveness, and because I can look at my offenders with empathy, the cuts can’t pierce like before. I can make the choice to give my offense over to God and pray for my persecutor.
This isn’t just for me. We all have a choice to make. Will you continue to walk in unforgivingness and limit yourself from living the full life God has planned for you? Or will you choose to let your offender go and no longer hang on to the hurt they have caused in your life?
I challenge you to choose the latter. Cut those chains that are tying you up with your hurt and choose to forgive. It’s not going to make every problem go away, but it’s life changing.
For me personally, it felt like I could fly.
