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Page 1 of 2 Mid-week Inspiration,
The challenge of life seems continually to be how to do the right things and how to keep from doing the wrong things. We all make mistakes; we say things that we wish we had not said. We inadvertently cause hurt to others that we wish after the fact we could have avoided.
Sadly, some of our most memorable moments have been those times when either we have said something causing an unexpectedly big reaction or we have reacted with indignity to something another did causing a ripple of hurt.
We do these things and we don’t intend to. Most of us declare to ourselves that it is too late, the damage is done, sometimes righteously and sometimes deeply humbled, hoping this will be the last time. It is never too late. Very few of us take any thought about how we might set things right even if we sincerely wish to be able to. Most of us most of the time just get on with our lives as soon as we can push the uncomfortable moment away. I once met a young fellow who said, “Every morning when I wake up I marinate both my feet because I at least want them to taste good when I stick them in my mouth”. Wise words behind the wise crack; hidden in that comment was a daily forgiveness of his humanness. There is a deep need for us to forgive ourselves for our humanness; after all we are all human and therefore we will cause hurt and occasionally be hurt by others. Forgiveness (or surrender, letting go or whatever words we choose) is an important step in our individual evolution. Until we can forgive ourselves we cannot begin to acknowledge our own faults and weaknesses; this goes for all of us. True forgiveness is always the first step in healing ourselves. Before we can accept any thing new for ourselves we must ‘empty the cup’, we must clear away the old pain to allow for a new experience of joy into our lives. True forgiveness can only be done by us for us. No one else can do it; not our parents, our pastor, our priests or even God. The misconception that we must go through our church to find forgiveness is one of the great sins of enslavement practiced by many of today’s world religions. We don’t need an intermediary; what we need is a willingness and desire to change. We need to want to become better people. We see the world around us seemingly coming apart at the seams often in complete despair wondering if we can do anything. The answer is yes, unequivocally yes. We can change ourselves. That is the one thing we can do and that is the only real thing we can do. We must learn to be visible examples of our humble determination. This is not some exercise in grandstanding, this is not about loudly proclaiming our virtues nor is it about announcing our morality. This is about standing tall in our integrity and conviction.
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