Forgive Once

While watching a movie, I heard a great line that went something like this "Forgive once. Resentment takes a lot of energy and requires remembering all of the wrongs done to you. You have to relive them daily." Inherent in this statement is the understanding that wrongs will be committed against you, Dear Reader. The question is, what are you willing to do with them, once you have experienced their sting? If this be true and you nod your head in agreement that yes, yes, you have been wronged, then it follows logically, that you too, have wronged others. I have heard and read many perspectives about making a wrong right, in your head and in your heart. All of them seem trite when I, when you, are reeling from the betrayal, the injustice of being wounded by a wrong. Some of the suggestions from the greats run along the lines of: What is the redemptive perspective on the injustice? Who have you powerfully become as a result of the wrong? What are you grateful for because of your experience? Then there are these from God Himself...turn the other cheek and pray for your enemies. The last one, it lands somewhere between my heart and my gut, like a sucker punch. I weep over the idea that while I am asked to pray for my enemies, they too, are asked to pray for me. The idea weakens me because of the forgive once concept. In the video recording of the mind, we can replay our pain, the words that have cut into our souls, the facial expressions that silently send hate. Others can do the same, recalling all that we have said, all that we have thought with our faces displaying our inner workings. This is how resentment grows and becomes a way of life. Think on this for a moment Dear Reader...resentment can become a way of life if fed the fuel of generous and continuous thought and multiple replays of what hurts to recall. It is self perpetuating. Stopping here would be a shame and would feel like shame. You hurt me, I hurt you and we resent one another, forever? No, we cannot stop here. Here is where we start. Forgive me Father, for I have sinned and this "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us". Forgiveness is grace, it is mercy, it is the key to the door of freedom. It is soft in its strength and it gives life to the one who forgives and asks for forgiveness. Forgiveness takes practice and patience and maybe, it will require more than one attempt, more than once to have it stick? This is ok, Dear One, you are ok. Keep at it, practice makes perfect. After 10 000 attempts, you will be a master in the art of forgiveness. Lastly, there is Someone you can model yourself after, The King of forgiveness, Jesus Christ. Sinless, Jesus is the only person who walked the earth that could say this "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do." They, we are they...forgive today Dear One, and taste the mana of freedom.