Forgiveness: the act of relieving someone of guilt. Why is this so hard to give?
Both of these things are abstract concepts. You can't touch them; they affect nothing in the physical world. Except for our hearts.
Why though? Why do these things affect us so? Is it because if our society? Well no. There are different societies with different moral structures. These effects, however, do come from our conscious, our innate sense of right and wrong.
But that doesn't answer why guilt hurts. It hurts because, even if we don't always acknowledge it, we know how the world is supposed to work. We know of Eden. The pain of this knowledge, that we have done something to break this peace, is called guilt.
Some of us choose to ignore the way things were supposed to be. Some of us never feel remorse. Others can feel it to the extreme.
But this begs the question, why don't we just forgive? If we know how the world is supposed to work, why do we keep the pain around?
Because breaking the way things should have been hurts not just the one who sinned, but also the one who was sinned against. It hurts even more when you know that you too have sinned. It creates a cycle of remorse, a never ending path of guilt.
Pain holds us back from forgiveness. In order to forgive, we have to give something up, we have to give up the "way things were supposed to work" kind of attitude. Because we need to look past that, past the pain, loss, and heartache.
Because holding onto that ideal, doesn't let it work. It just keeps the cycle going. It doesn't create Shalom. So let it all go, the lust, the lies, the past you are afraid of. Let go of the anger, sadness, heartache, loss, and anything that holds you back and forgive.
