Unconditional Forgiveness Yields Unlimited Creativity

Unconditional Forgiveness Yields Unlimited Creativity

2 Samuel 13:1-33

The failure to forgive imprisons our minds, hearts, and wills to pervasive and perpetual thoughts of satisfying obsessions with revenge.  When we fail to forgive others, we spend incalculable amounts of time thirsting for revenge and plotting our vindication.  This active imagination yields to fictional and impractical scenarios of how our oppressors will receive their comeuppance.  Spiritually speaking, we ask Almighty God to anoint us as His express instruments to extract His vengeance upon our victimizers.  Essentially, the failure to forgive kidnaps our talents, abilities, creativity, dreams, and emotional health.  More significantly, you cannot be a channel of the Lord’s unfailing love if you harbor bitterness and resentment toward another person.

Recently, I read a newspaper article about a very disgruntled former student of a university in Texas who felt mistreated by the faculty and administration of the school.  Amazingly, this fellow, seeking retaliation upon those persons who harmed him, sent seventy-six thousand (76,000) emails to the university community hoping to expose the deeds of his perpetrators.  Later, I read an article about an Asian man whose girlfriend left him to begin a relationship with an African-American male.  This failed relationship ignited the Asian man’s disdain for interracial relationships.  For the subsequent twenty years, this man steadfastly maintained a campaign to frighten and end all interracial relationships.  He sent hate mail to prominent African-American men in interracial marriages inclusive of marquis Hollywood actors, a U. S. Supreme Court justice, and professional athletes.  If he saw an interracial couple on the street, he would follow them and write down their license plate numbers and letters.  He would then send them hate mail threatening their safety.  Upon being formally charged after an FBI investigation, this man immediately pleaded guilty.  He cited his anger and bitterness toward his former girlfriend as the foundation for his actions.  Third, I recall attending the Holy Communion service at a very popular Baptist church in Harlem in October 1987 as I entered seminary.  As the Pastor officiated over the Sacrament, he appealed to Almighty God that the recipients would enjoy eternal life.  An older woman, sitting on one of the back pews, began to yell, “Hey Minister!  Hey Minister!  Surely she [name omitted] shall not live forever after what she did to me” As the ushers attempted to quiet and comfort her, this elderly woman proceeded to yell more loudly. 

The three foregoing persons had one thing in common.  All of them failed to forgive people who wronged them.  Their initial anger became rage which in turn matured into bitterness and a deep thirst for revenge.  They devoted themselves to extracting vengeance upon their victimizers.  Their mental energies and spiritual imagination were dedicated to ensuring that the people who hurt them are punished sufficiently.  To satisfy their desire for revenge, astoundingly, they were prepared to expend whatever cost necessary. 

Unconditional forgiveness yields unlimited creativity.  It is impossible to actualize fully dreams and goals if unforgiveness clogs your mind, heart and soul.  As recipients of God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ, we gratefully extend our meager human forgiveness to those who violated our feelings, trust, kindness and love.  We forgive because we have been forgiven.  Our gratitude for divine forgiveness equates perfectly with our willingness to forgive others.  The apostle Paul exhorts the Ephesians, “Be kind and tenderhearted toward each other, forgiving each other for just as in Christ God forgives you.”  Furthermore, we forgive in order to experience incredible and infinite freedom that God offers in the abundant and eternal life.  In consequence, we extend forgiveness without any conditions whatsoever.  This unequivocal forgiveness simultaneously yields unconstrained creativity.