🤮 Forgiveness is stupid and annoying

Book of TREE 2.36

You know that thing where someone does something nasty to you then carries on living their life completely untroubled and facing no consequences for their actions?

And then, alongside your pain, you are left a terrible choice.

Do you (rightly) hold on to the injustice of what was done to you and let it ferment into a corrosive bucket of bile in your innermost self?

Or do you (completely unreasonably) do the hard, painful work of letting go of that nasty thing that was done to you so that you can be healed and unstuck from that terrible moment (or era) of your life?

The person who did the nasty thing should have to do that work, not you. But, no. You have to do the work or live with the bile. It’s stupid and annoying, but that’s the way it works. Have a grumble. Have a rant. You have every right and frustration needs expression. Also, do the work of forgiveness. The freedom is worth it.

Back to my 80s youth:

Important note: forgiveness doesn’t mean you trust the other person or you don’t set boundaries. It doesn’t mean you pretend what they did was right. It means you let it go. I recommend Rob Bell’s podcast miniseries on what forgiveness is and how to do it.

Grow slowly
Jeff