Forgiveness

It's everyone's story. Someone hurts you, and you hold on to it. It may have been years ago, but it's still present and active in your mind. You can feel the anger, or the hurt, or the resentment, or the betrayal in your body. It's like an old scab and every time you pick it, it bleeds.

You think that you need to hold it because that person should pay for what they did, but if it's eating at you -- who is paying? You have incarcerated yourself with your thoughts, but the door isn't locked. There are no guards in this prison except for your own beliefs that say you must suffer because . . . why is it you are suffering? How does it serve you?

Have a good cry. Hit your pillow. Talk to a friend or a therapist. Be done with it and free yourself. Go deep within your mind and heart and ask your Inner Voice, God within you, to help you see clearly, beyond the fog and mist of a wounded ego, beyond the self-destructive need to exact revenge, beyond your emotionally suicidal urges -- to a place of understanding -- understanding that there is no law that says you should suffer -- a place called freedom where you can breathe and once again bask in the love and the joy that is yours. Heaven and hell stand before you. Forgiveness --that's Heaven!  Unforgiveness -- that's hell!

William Frank Diedrich, author of
The Road Home: The Journey Beyond The Spiritual Quick Fix.
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