Lenten Post 6: Forgiveness...

Lent, the season of repentance, the season of seeing our sin as sin and turning towards the Cross, but with repentance comes forgiveness. Forgiveness, while it is a powerful and intriguing concept it is difficult to comprehend and truly practice. How can Someone, Who knows me inside and out, Who knows my thoughts before they are brought to mind, Who knows my words before they are spoken, Who knows my actions before they are enacted, Who knows ME, forgive? Yet once it is tasted is as sweet as honey. The freedom that comes from forgiveness can only be found in the grace and mercy of the Cross. When I think about the Lord, when I think about Me, when I realize the One person Who knows me better than I know myself, loves me unconditionally and once I seek repentance and forgiveness am forgiven and need not bring it back to Him because He has thrown it as far as the east is from the west, I can not help but be filled with an overwhelming joy and a peace. However, this joy and peace, this grace and mercy, this repentance and forgiveness is not just to be shared between Our Father and ourselves; it is to be shared with our brothers and our sisters, our neighbors and our coworkers. We forgive because we have been forgiven. It is hard to not understand why the Lord commanded us to forgive seventy times seven, because we are human and to forgive someone is the most difficult discipline to practice. How often we say, I will forgive but...I will forgive if...I will forgive when....instead of, I forgive. We justify, we qualify, we harbor bitterness anger grief shame guilt. It takes seventy times seven for us to forgive the simples of sins. What freedom we would find if we just forgave, nothing required just pure unconditional forgiveness. I love you therefor I will forgive you. I do not know you but I will forgive you. Those closest to us, those that know us, truly know us better than we know ourselves, will be the ones who hurt us the most. Yet when we think back to the cross, to the One hanging there, Who took all my sins on Him and Who still loves me greater than I even imagine, has forgiven me, how can I not forgive? And how can I not forgive myself? Many of us find it easier to forgive others yet can not forgive ourselves. We believe that the guilt shame heartache we live with is our punishment for our crimes. We believe that we can never be truly free because of the actions or words we have let slip from our lives. But that same forgiveness that same freedom and sweet honey that is given to us from the Cross of Christ that is poured out on others is poured out on us. We can forgive our selves because we have been forgiven. We can live in freedom because we know the Freer. We can cast off all shame and guilt because our sins have been cast out. Repentance is just a step. We can stop at repentance and never understand forgiveness, or we can repent and live in the freedom of the forgiveness we have been given. This Lent do not stop at repentance but move into the freedom that comes from the Cross and the Resurrection the forgiveness of sins and the life everlasting.