Unconditional Forgiveness Yields Unlimited Creativity
2 Samuel 13:1-33 – Part II
Lest we laugh at the previously mentioned persons and relegate them as being inexplicably crazy, consider the continual resentment and revenge lists that we keep. How many people remain on your resentment list? Have you purged anyone from your vengeance list? How many people remain on it? These are the victimizers whom you pray to God to extract His swiftest and severest punishment. The degree to which we keep, update and rearrange the names on these lists parallels the actions of the three disgruntled persons above. Moreover, we remain as trapped in the mire of unforgiveness as they did. Eventually, we become bitter and cynical people imprisoned to the unproductive and purposeless tasks of making our victimizers pay for their “crimes” against us.
I know a young minister who once kept a resentment list of two hundred and fifty-six people. This clergyperson vividly and meticulously recalled dates, times, places and multiple instances of the ways in which people hurt his feelings, overlooked him, trespassed his kindness, underestimated his skills, demeaned his abilities and failed to reciprocate his goodness. What an astonishing waste of mental energy and intellectual potential! Some of us do not even know two hundred and fifty-six people let alone harboring years of resentment against that many people. This minister did not appreciate the extreme toxicity within his feelings and thoughts. How could he expect to be creative and industrious given this incalculable drain upon his soul and will? Moreover, how could he portend to share Christ’s unconditional love with anyone as he continually withheld his forgiveness from those people on his resentment list?
Again, unconditional forgiveness yields boundless creativity. If you are stifled professionally, financially and existentially, you may consider whether you continue to withhold your forgiveness from someone who rightly deserves it. There are new, great and unimaginable vistas God has for us if we will submit humbly and obey His word by unconditionally forgiving everyone. Actually, God will amaze us with boundlessness freedom when we live at peace with everyone else. We will discover latent talents and abilities. We will find ways of translating them into financial success and material acquisition. We will strive to serve God by serving others. We will live with purposes of spreading the gospel of Christ and its message of inner healing and wholeness. We will develop ambitions of building the kingdom of God. Our souls will sing openly and liberally to the honor and glory of Almighty God. Freedom to dream and pursue one’s dreams with singleness of purpose is one of the practical benefits of forgiving.
Forgiveness is a selfish act. We do not forgive people because they need of our forgiveness. Shakespeare said, “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” Accordingly, withholding forgiveness perpetually harms us. As recipients of God’s forgiveness in Christ, we gratefully extend our compassion by forgiving incapacities, brokenness and unresolved pain of people who hurt us. Forgiveness is a two way street. One extends as one receives. Unconditional forgiveness opens the doors and windows of life. It is a primary prerequisite to becoming a genuine messenger of the Lord’s love with integrity.
To forgive means to pardon. It resembles a governor of a state issuing a decree in which a prisoner is released immediately from prison and totally cleared of all crimes and charges whether he or she actually committed them. A pardon means a clean slate. Forgiveness, likewise, means that we intend to treat the person who harmed us as if he or she never committed their dastardly deed.
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