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Betsy Leichliter
Forgive to forget
As I started to write this, I asked myself, “Didn’t I already forgive everybody I needed to forgive?” It seemed like I had more people to forgive years ago than recently. And once I forgave them, I did not have to continue to re-live the pain or damage they had caused by lying to me, or about me, or both.
For me, one of the biggest challenges of forgiving has been trying to figure out whether or how I had triggered the harm or pain a person had caused me. Trying to see the situation through their eyes can be very difficult, even with someone you know well.
Another challenge was deciding whether to discuss the problem or potential solutions with the person involved, or not.
As I continued to think about forgiving, about 10 more people came to mind who I need to think about forgiving. Surprisingly, later that day a Facebook friend request from one of these people showed up in my inbox. We were close friends for years, then disconnected for reasons that were fuzzy to me. Since I had no idea how to reply to the request, I just clicked the “accept” button, then moved this person’s name to my forgiving list.
Friends and members of our Christ Church family have prepared these daily reflections as a means for you to consider how forgiveness informs your faith walk during this holy season. They are a richly diverse group from many different geographies around our nation and globe, formed by a wide variety of traditions.